For Open Studios 2025, the students of the School of Art are inviting Pittsburgh to get lost in the clouds and dream a little. What might you find as you drift through working artists’ studios and see new projects taking shape? Here, some of those students offer a glimpse of what the night will hold when this favorite annual tradition returns on December 5, 2025.
What’s your favorite Open Studios memory?
Morgan Nash (BFA ’26): Always the upstairs studios! I love seeing how uniquely personal each student makes their space.
Anqi Chen (BFA ’28): The zombie plant I got last year — it’s still going strong.
Joana Liu (BFA ’28): Seeing each senior’s studio as a mini gallery is really inspiring.
Olivia Wu (BCSA ’27): I attended open studios in freshman year and someone brought their cats.
Anastasia Jungle (BFA ’26): I informally inserted myself into the print sales area as a freshman and sold monoprints. It was so much fun to have the public engage with my art so early into undergrad.
Bethany Hwang (BFA ’26): I love seeing all the people I’ve never met come into my studio and interacting with it!
Yulissa Lu (BHA ’28): Chatting with upperclassmen and friends about their experience, works, and future plans! It was also fun and motivating to get a glimpse of their studio spaces.
Ebba Shim (BFA ’28): Interacting with the MFA grads in the MFA studios!
Sofia Venezia (BHA ’26): I love walking past the studios and seeing each artist’s personalities shine through. There’s so much character within each studio space.
If you and your art were something in the clouds, what would it be?
Jocelyn Harte (BFA ’26): A lovely being with wings? Either a cat or girl.
Scott Liu (BFA ’26): 2,000 metric tons of steel, with evil spikes.
Helena Starzec (BFA ’26): Paint fumes.
Ebba Shim (BFA ’28): Weird rain.
Zahra El Ansary (BHA ’28): Sunlight shining through clouds.
Morgan Nash (BFA ’26): A blimp made of gelatin. Sort of awkward, in your face, and silly.
Anastasia Jungle (BFA ’26): Something that shouldn’t be in the clouds, like a ball of grass shot from a lawnmower or a rock.
Olivia Wu (BCSA ’27): The cloud itself probably.
What are you most proud to show in this year’s Open Studios?
Sofia Venezia (BHA ’26): I am finally found my niche in the art community through documenting my travels, communicating my connection with nature and experimenting with non-2d mediums like electronic sculpture. Many of my cherished life experiences are captured within sketchbooks that will be presented for the first time at Open Studios.
Bethany Hwang (BFA ’26): I’m excited to share my newer body of work. It’s a bit out of my comfort zone so seeing how it’s received is something I’m looking forward to. So much grass.
Helena Starzec (BFA ’26): I’m quite good at depicting fish.
Zahra El Ansary (BHA ’28): The atmosphere I managed to create using sound, which I don’t often do.
Scott Liu (BFA ’26): My cross bow. It can cross and bow.
Anastasia Jungle (BFA ’26): As someone who struggles to streamline their work, I’ve been really excited by beginning to see it all together. Like, oh okay, this all does kind of make sense as a body.
What messages do you want to share through your pieces?
Helena Starzec (BFA ’26): I’m making cool things up here!
Anastasia Jungle (BFA ’26): I want us all to be more aware of how we think about, look at, and talk to ourselves and others. I also want everybody to be okay with admitting to their own voyeurism.
Zahra El Ansary (BHA ’28): I want to communicate a dream-like feeling of nostalgia through my most recent pieces.
Olivia Wu (BCSA ’27): Fun, whimsy, humor, and intriguing stories.
Sofia Venezia (BHA ’26): My work brings attention to the naturally beautiful elements of life that often go unnoticed. Through research works, sketchbooks from life, and responsive sculptures, I challenge visitors to view their natural surroundings from a new perspective.
Jocelyn Harte (BFA ’26): Pure joy and curiosity.
Open Studios is a free, family-friendly event open to all. Street parking is available along Frew and Tech streets or in CMU’s East Campus Garage.