The Pittsburgh Technology Council and the CREATE Festival are thrilled to announce the 2016 CREATE Featured Artist of the Year, Jesse Best, in partnership with the Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival.

Mr. Best will be the headline artist at this year’s CREATE Festival and Innovation Salon, downtown Pittsburgh, on Thursday, June 9, 2016. His work will also be featured at the Three River’s Arts Festival, and gifted to the collections of Pittsburgh’s ten Creators-of-the-Year, who will be announced at the CREATE party on the evening of June 9, at the Fairmont Hotel.

Sky Disk, by Jesse Best, the CREATE 2016 Awards

Jesse Best’s Infinite Sky Disk Series: The Cosmos Collides with Abstract Painting
A special series of Sky Disks, created for CREATE 2016, represents the concept of holding the universe, and all of its possibilities, in a compact and portable piece of art. By looking up at the stars and enjoying the vastness of it all, it allows us to put our problems on Earth into perspective. Anything is possible, especially within the ever changing world of technology. These disks are a reminder to always look forward with excitement and wonderment about what the future holds.

Jesse Best is a contemporary American painter living in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. His style reflects a material driven process with a focus on acrylic, spray paint, wood and resin. His blend of painterly brush work, combined with a graphic sensibility, has granted him a unique style and voice in the art world. His work has been featured as part of the Pittsburgh Technology Council’s Art + Technology Initiative since its inception in 2008. View more of his work at: http://www.jessebest.com.

CREATE 2016, is the Pittsburgh Technology Council’s national Creative Industries Festival, celebrating the intersection of creativity and innovation. Part of the Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival, CREATE features a full-day line-up of art, tech, workshops, panels, performances, awards and opportunities to engage in the newest trends in creativity and innovation. CREATE is a mashup of networking, interactivity and inspiration, honoring the year’s most innovative art and technology people and projects. http://www.createpgh.org

close up of jesse best's sky discs, create 2016

Innovative CREate event to be part of annual Three Rivers Arts Festival

This year's Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival, a 10-day Pittsburgh tradition in its 56th year, will feature a new “Create” festival, along with other new features and the standard annual favorites. Create 2015, from June 10 to 12, brings together innovators from around the country to inspire each other and come up with new ideas. Create offers a lineup of arts and tech workshops, panels and performances with topics ranging from robotics, fine art, film and television to animation, held in rooms at the Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh Downtown. Create is a project of the Creative Industries Network as an initiative of the Pittsburgh Technology Council. READ THE FULL STORY ON THE TRIBUNE REVIEW.

CHECK OUT THE CLIP ON CBS NEWS HERE