Tom Sarver: January 2026
Tom Sarver began exhibiting in Pittsburgh in 1999. Growing up north of the city, his art teachers were Jim Rettinger and Holly Pultz. While studying painting in Philadelphia, Sarver began creating puppets to serve as models for his work. Returning to Pittsburgh, he gravitated to activities at The Brew House, and was a core organizer of the Black Sheep Puppet Festival (1999-2008). The experience inspired new social project-based work in installation, performance, events and curatorial projects.
Sarver’s project at the Mattress Factory, Tom Museum (2006-2008), was awarded the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council’s Mayor’s Award for Public Art. His Art Olympics have been featured throughout Pittsburgh, and most recently with support of AAP and The Cultural Trust as part of the AAP 110th Annual Exhibition. He has done several projects with Three Rivers Arts Festival including Sarver’s Bait & Tackle, which lives on as an annual sale of fish art. From 2020-2022, with the support of Pittsburgh Center for Arts & Media, Sarver developed Virtual Puppetry Residency, an online international puppetry residency, with participants from twenty countries. His ongoing projects include sketches of Pittsburgh places and paintings of local art scene memories. Sarver holds a BFA from Tyler School of Art and an MFA from SUNY Purchase.
My work involves using the raw elements of artmaking (painting, drawing, sculpting), incorporating them into social projects that alter the expectations of what art can be, where it happens, and who is involved. An Art Olympics event can spontaneously involve the participation of audience members. A community puppetry project can become a venue for international dialogue. A conversation with an onlooker during a city sketch can be incorporated into the narrative of a project. What binds my diverse practice is a desire to engage with the community through memories, shared interests and humor. I aim to challenge the hierarchies of the art world by looking for creativity in unexpected places.