The Pop District

The pop district is the local place where the virtual gallery will be located.

This is a transformation of Pittsburgh’s eastern North Shore through the power of arts, creativity, and economic development — led by The Andy Warhol Museum.

Erica Principe Cruz

Erica is the advisor of this project and will conduct research activities with the outcome of the product.

Erica Principe Cruz is a Generation Google Women in Gaming Scholar and Ph.D. student at the Center for Transformational Play and the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. She researches how digital games and immersive environments can be designed as places that empower marginalized communities. To investigate computer-mediated play as a space for playful resistance against oppression, she collaborates with marginalized communities to shape places of play across realities that center their joy, rest, and healing.

Local Artists

The virtual immersive gallery prototype will be informed by the community-centric vision generated by our research activities with marginalized Pittsburgh artists