For Immediate Release Contact: Carol O’Sullivan

May 18, 2007 412-681-5449

PF/PCA Announces New Hires at Annie Seamans Electronic Media Arts Lab

(Pittsburgh, PA) – Pittsburgh Filmmakers (PF) and Pittsburgh Center for the Arts (PCA) announce personnel changes at the Annie Seamans Electronic Media Arts Lab, where the Media Literacy program – with classes geared to 14 -17 year-olds – is growing into a major program of the organization.

Effective immediately, Susan Howard takes over as the Lab’s new Director. A Penn State graduate, Howard has taught filmmaking at PF since 1988. She works as an editor on independent films, and for its last 12 seasons she was the editor of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, a nationally broadcast children’s television program on PBS. She is the co-author of the widely distributed textbook, Shot By Shot: A Practical Guide to Filmmaking.

She replaces Teresa Foley, who has taken a position as director of Digital Media Arts at the Center for Contemporary Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Gordon Nelson has been hired as the full-time Senior Instructor.

Nelson, an educator and independent filmmaker, is currently a teacher at the charter school, City High School in downtown Pittsburgh. He’s the former program coordinator in the Department of Film and Video at the Carnegie Museum of Art, and former Director of Operations at Pittsburgh Filmmakers.

“Our commitment to the Annie Seamans lab, based on the remarkable work started by Teresa Foley, is reinforced by these two amazing people,” said Charlie Humphrey, executive director of PF/PCA.

The Annie Seamans Electronic Media Arts Lab, a state-of-the-art teaching lab offering classes in Animation, Experimental Video Art, Music Videos, Digital Audio and Digital Photography, opened in 2006 shortly after the two arts organizations merged.

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