Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 34

C-6 PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE SATURDAY, JUNE 14, 2003 THINGS TO DO Today you nnn trieif tVa You didn't forget tomorrow is Father's Day, did you? BONDING AT WQEX'sftiture is no clearer after FCC decision USEUM rarnp(Jip Spend some time with your dad doing whatever he wants. And if your father is no longer alive, share a story about him with someone. Museums of Natural History and Art in Oakland for free. Parking is free too. "Not Your Typical Day at Carnegie Museums," sponsored by Citizens Bank, will feature special programs and prizes and free gifts.

The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and the free parking is available in the museum's garage at Forbes Avenue and South Craig Street. Information: 412-622-3131. NEWS ANALYSIS tiff I tali; IN 1 Barnes' sculptures grow on trees W.wn.wi-wwiwf-iTH Vm v.

v. k-. WilA ry.i i Sffi' 'p -'CVe; f'rJ A 'V I y-y'ly 'yysMy By Rob Owen Post-Gazette TV Editor It's the media parlor game of the year: trying to figure out who's in the running to buy WQEX, Channel 16. Last week's decision by the Federal Communications Commission to allow the nation's biggest conglomerates to grow larger could increase the number of interested potential buyers from the three that WQED Multimedia president George Miles has long acknowledged but refuses to identify. Then again, maybe not.

Buying a station in market No. 2'lmight make sense for a media company in theory, but what pro-ams do you put on it when there's no network affiliation easily available and all the most popular syndicated programs have been snapped up by other local outlets? Around the same time a deal to 'sell the station to Diane Sutter's Shooting Star Broadcasting for $20 million fell apart, WQED received long-awaited permission from the FCC in October to convert Channel 16's license from non-commercialeducational to commercial. Miles said he's been talking with three prospective buyers in recent months, none of them religious broadcasters or home shopping channels. Since the FCC's decision last week, Miles said two more parties have inquired about the station's status. "We've got an offer on the table that I could take tomorrow, but at the moment, I think we can do better," Miles said.

Engineering studies to examine WQEX's signal coverage in the coming digital era are under way, and Miles said WQED might stifl opt to lease the station instead. He offered no timetable for a sale or lease of the station might happen. "We want to get this done, but we can't give the station away either. A fire sale is not in the making." A network buyer? Last week, the FCC raised the cap on the percentage of stations a single company can own nationally from 35 percent to 45 percent. Ron Bruno, owner of independent low-power station WBGN, thinks the 45 percent rule and the availability of Channel 16 could Erovide a club for some of the iggest players to wield.

So let's run through the possibilities. ABC-Disney hasn't been in an acquisition mode of late and jseems an unlikely buyer. Pittsburgh still doesn't have enough Btations to permit a triopoly, which could be what WQED was hoping the FCC's new rules would allow. Without that, Viacom's CBS, which already owns KDKA and is out as a potential bidder. two companies Rupert Murdoch's Fox and Viacom were at or over the 35 percent limit," Shooting Star's Sutter said.

Last year, Shooting Star sought to modify its deal to buy WQEX. WQED balked and the deal collapsed. In October, Sinclair Broadcast IGroup, which owns WPGH, Pittsburgh's Fox affiliate, and WCWB, WB's local affiliate, signed a new agreement to keep WPGH a By Mary Thomas Post-Gazette Art Critic Every now and then an opportunity arises to meet someone who's become a legend in his or her field. Dorothy Gill Barnes, whose exhibition "Wood WorkPlay" is at the Society for Contemporary Craft, is such a person. Barnes employs natural material to create quiet yet bold works that resonate with craft tradition but are sculptural in intent.

Twenty-five of her sculptures made of tree bark, branches and roots are at the society, and she'll give a talk and a workshop later in the month. What makes her expression singular, and has attracted international attention, is the subtly of the modifications she makes to the wood she uses, and the way she integrates found patterns, some of which have been made by animals or insects. This is exemplified by the eight-part "Marked by Humans, Elk, Bear, Bugs and Beaver" (note the little drawer in one of the branches), as is Barnes' ability to entice the visitor to a contemplation of nuance. At times Barnes is the mark-maker, an action that may be taken at the time of the piece's construction, but more likely was begun at least three months and up to 15 years earlier, when the artist incised a branch that she'd then monitor until she deemed it ready for harvest. She refers to these markings as "dendro-glyphs" and they can be as elegant as those on the handsome sheath and inset of "Three Kings Dendroglyph" or less apparent, as on the rough surface of "From the Old Hay-field." Other pieces, like perky "Found Underground," are finished by painstakingly weaving the branch's own bark, creating a visual disjunct that takes the eye a moment to catch up with.

Barnes, who was born in Iowa, earned a B.A. (1949) and an M.A. (1951) from the University of Iowa, and at first made traditional woven baskets. She's since exhibited in Europe, in Pacific Rim countries and at the 2000 International Tapestry Exhibition in Beijing, as well as at the prestigious Museum of Arts and Design in New York (the former American Craft Museum), which includes her work in its collection. Fox station through June 2005.

But how iron-clad are affiliation agreements? That depends on who you ask, and it probably differs by company. Insiders say Fox affiliation agreements typically include an out clause that allows Fox to yank its affiliation if it buys a station in the same city. Whether Sinclair's new agreement with Fox includes that clause is unknown. A spokesman for Fox refused to comment, and Sinclair's spokesman did not return a call. Tribune which owns TV stations in 26 markets nationwide, last week said it's interested in acquiring more stations in the Top 30 markets.

Tribune owns 22 percent of The WB, which has a long-term affiliation agreement with Sinclair's Paxson was part of a WQEX deal in the past. After that plan fell apart, the company cut a deal to get Pax on some local cable systems and seems uninterested in a broadcast outlet. Pax TV is in a state of transition, with no new series developed for fall, and it is pushing for NBC, which owns a portion of Pax, to buy it outright. With or without Pax, might NBC buy Channel 16 and pull its network affiliation from WPXI? That seems unlikely, too. NBC and Channel 11 recently signed a new affiliation agreement that runs through 2013.

"We feel quite good about our relationship with NBC," said Bruce Baker, executive vice president of television at Cox Communications, which owns WPXI. He pointed out that Cox has two other NBC stations in the area one in Johnstown, one in Steubenville. Another reason NBC might not want to mess with Cox: The company owns cable systems in other parts of the country. NBC wouldn't want to see its distribution disrupted there, so the company would probably opt to play nice with Cox in Pittsburgh. For similar reasons, Fox might not want to antagonize Sinclair, which operates a total of 20 Fox and 19 WB affiliates.

NBC, which recently bought Telemundo, might be more interested in Pittsburgh if Western Pennsylvania had a rapidly growing Spanish-speaking population, but it doesn't. That also knocks Spanish-language network Univi-sion out of the running. Even if a network saw an opportunity to yank an affiliation in Pittsburgh, such upheaval often has negative ratings consequences. "When Fox did affiliate switches eight years ago, the affiliates that got moved to a different channel weren't the ones that did well," Sutter said. "The ones that did well are the ones that didn't switch." A market player? When Sutter had an agreement to buy WQEX, she talked to the owners of other local stations about partnering in operation of WQEX.

Hearst Argyle, which owns local ABC affiliate WTAE, considered the possibility but passed. SEE WQEX, PAGE C-9 This sculpture, made of altered natural materials by Ohio artist Dorothy Gill Barnes, is one of 25 in her exhibition "Wood WorkPlay" at the Society tor Contemporary Craft. She'll speak and lead a workshop at the society June 27 and 28. ART REVIEW She's come to know, over time, the characteristics in nature and as a medium of the trees she uses, and is careful to take only those already slated to be removed. She also remembers where each has come from, and her titles often reflect the inclusiveness she feels towards all aspects of her process Yard Mulberry," "July White Also coming to the society is South African-born artist Elsabe Loubser Dixon, now of suburban Washington, D.C., who studied with Barnes so works with clay and hand-made paper, adapted this method to create other forms.

According to Dixon, this does not hurt the worm or stop its metamorphosis. The artist says she views serf-. culture (raising silkworms) as a part of her French Huguenot heritage, and "associates the worms with a platonic ideal the ideal being that of a weaver, the fabricator of things," a discussion that segues into the significance assigned weaving by the Dogon people of Mali, "who believe the woof and weft symbolize our human need for social interaction and also our absolute dependence on the natural world for food and shelter." During a three-day residency, to coincide with Barnes' workshop, Dixon will monitor and guide her worms as they create on site. Their presence, along with the simultaneous exhibition "Melody: Recent Work by Keiko Miyamori" at the society, and Patrick Dougherty's large Three Rivers Arts Festival sculpture at Point State Park (where Miyamori also has a collaborative installation) illustrate a wide range of ways sensitively attuned and creative people have adapted natural materials to art-making. Both shows continue through June 28 at 2100 Smallman Strip District.

Dixon will speak at 6 p.m. June 26 and Barnes at 6 p.m. June 27. Barnes will conduct a daylong workshop, "Mulberry, on June 28, which includes a talk by Dixon members $50; registration required). Gallery hours are 9 a.m.

to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays. For information, call 412-261-7003 or visit www.contemporarycraft.org. i 'ii'tuH 1- 'is i in 1985 and shares a mulberry connection. While Barnes employs mulberry as a medium, Dixon feeds its leaves to her silkworms, and, as she puts it, "the worms become my muse and their silk my medium." In elementary school in South Africa, Dixon and her classmates were given silk worms and shown how to influence the direction of their spinning away from the intuitively formed, stocky, cylindrical cocoon that would shelter them during their transformation from worm to moth, to a two-dimensional rectangle to be used as a bookmark a rather elegant application of the notion of a bookworm.

In later years, Dixon, who al at Doug Martin "Woven Willow with Log" (detail) by Dorothy Gill Barnes. Mary Thomas can be reached mtlwnasfa or 412-263-1 925. Estate Cont. from Page C-5 013 East Apartments-Rent 013 East Aparlmente-Rent 013 East Apartments-Rent 013 East Apartments-Rent 013 East Apartments-Rent 013 East Apartments-Rent 014 West Apartments-Rent SHAOYSIDE 3BR eq kit, ca. avail.

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412-242-4246 TURTLE CREEK MOMR06VILLE 1 or 28R, AC, WW, eq. kit, 5 min. to Mall, DEPOSIT SPECIAL Res. Mgr 412-825-4556 or 412-823-9223 Brandywine VERONA 2BR, Indry fac, ww no pets. $440 gas elec.

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4)2-363-2800 SHADYSIDE Kentucky Ave, 2 blks from Walnut St. spac. 2BR, LR, DR, eat-in kit, Irg bale, working frpl. sc. bldq, hent in-Cld.

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