Silver Eye promotes the power of contemporary photography as a fine art medium by creating original exhibitions, unique educational programming, and a space for artists to learn, create, and connect through our digital lab and education center, The Lab @ Silver Eye. Our programs are dedicated to supporting the work of emerging, mid-career, and under-recognized artists and sharing that work with our diverse audience in engaging and meaningful ways.
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Create | Learn | Connect
Learn about Aaronel deRoy Gruber & Irving Gruber's legacy of creativity
A year-long immersive internship for college seniors
Host your event at the Main Gallery or the Education Center!
Silver Eye stewards PGH Photo Fair. Visit the full archive here!
Learn more about Silver Eye's curatorial process and exhibition selection
Silver Eye is a proud founding member of Visual Arts Coalition for Equity
1/10: Silver Eye began in 1979 as two separate organizations: Blatent Image Gallery, a cooperative gallery designed to provide exhibition space to local fine art photographers, and The Silver Eye Photographic Workshop, which brought nationally known photographers to Pittsburgh to exhibit their work and to conduct workshops.
2/10: These two organizations merged in 1985 and became the Blatent Image/Silver Eye, which later changed to Silver Eye Center for Photography in 1985.
3/10: Gallery visitors admire Dylan Vitone's panorama in Pittsburgh Now in the summer of 2005.
4/10: William Wade, Dylan Vitone, Annie O'Niell, Steven Adams, Carrie Schneider, Rob Long, Lake Fong, Henry Simonds, Linda Benedict-Jones, Ken Keely and Heather Mull.
5/10: Students respond to photographs by James VanDerZee, 2000
6/10: Gallery visitors to Keith Carter "Poet of the Ordinary" in 2004
7/10: In 2017 Silver Eye began the New Vision Campaign to relocate our gallery from the South Side to Penn Avenue.
8/10: In the summer of 2017 our main gallery was named for the artist and philanthropist Aaronell DeRoy Gruber and her husband Irving Gruber.
9/10: Silver Eye's first opening reception after relocating for the exhibition "Past Present Future."
10/10: The June 2017 Grand Re-Opening Party for Silver Eye after the relocation to the Bloomfield-Garfield neighborhood.
Executive Director
leo@silvereye.org
Leo Hsu (he/him) is interested in questions around the ways that making and living with photographs shapes and is shaped by experience, and in the ways in which the medium’s tensions and possibilities are simultaneously troubling and energizing. He has worked as a writer and editor for Fraction Magazine and Foto8 and as a news photographer. He taught in photography at Carnegie Mellon University, holds a PhD in Anthropology and New York State Certificate in Culture and Media from New York University, and brings fifteen years experience as a project manager. Born in Taipei, he grew up in Squirrel Hill and returned to Pittsburgh after many years away.
Deputy Director and Director of Programs
helen@silvereye.org
Helen Trompeteler (she/her) is a curator and writer deeply committed to supporting underrepresented visual artists. As Deputy Director and Director of Programs at Silver Eye, she brings over twenty years of curatorial expertise following roles at the Royal Collection Trust (UK), the National Portrait Gallery (UK), and as an independent curator. A passionate advocate for artists and audiences, her writing on art and photography has been published worldwide.
Education Program Manager
Sobia Ahmad is an interdisciplinary artist and educator working across photography, moving image, and social practice, exploring themes of spirituality, relationality, and embodied knowledge. She holds an MFA from Carnegie Mellon University, has exhibited widely, and is a recipient of the Silver Eye Fellowship 25 Keystone Award along with multiple grants and residencies. Ahmad brings over a decade of experience in curriculum design, community engagement, and program management. She has led courses and workshops in photography, art and mindfulness, and experimental media, emphasizing critical dialogue and engaging learning environments for participants of all experience levels.
Communications and Operations Manager
makenzie@silvereye.org
Makenzie O’Connor (she/they) is an artist, designer, and researcher dedicated to community-minded, care-forward projects. Mak holds an MS in Design Science from the University of Michigan and, as Communications and Operations Manager, bring over six years of experience collaborating with artists, architects, writers, and institutions on dynamic editorial and exhibition projects. With a particular focus on relationality and accessibility, they explores how objects, ephemera, and architecture shape the ways we move through and make meaning of the world.
Lab Manager
sean@silvereye.org
Sean Stewart is a photographer and artist with deep experience in digital printing, scanning, framing, and art handling. He holds a BFA from Drexel University and has shared his work at Silver Eye, VICE, and Juxtapose. Stewart’s work is quiet and contemplative, and his subject matter is centered around contemporary American issues.
Tim Gyves, Chair
Elizabeth A Carter, PhD, Treasurer
Anna Radder, Secretary
Matthew Conboy
Alison Oehler
Scott Roller
Shikeith
janera solomon
Barbara Weissberger
Jason Wilburn
Leo Hsu, Ex-Officio
Silver Eye is extraordinarily grateful for the generosity of our supporters.
Our Many Individual Donors
Allegheny Regional Asset District (ARAD)
Arts, Equity, & Education FundTM
Bloomberg Philanthropies
The Fine Foundation
The Heinz Endowments
The Herb Ritts Foundation
The Irving and Aaronel deRoy Gruber Foundation
Joy of Giving Something, Inc.
The Leonian Foundation
The McKinney Charitable Foundation
Opportunity Fund
Pennsylvania Council on the Arts
The Pittsburgh Foundation
and other foundations