Basic Information for Randyland
Address: 1501 Arch Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15212
Hours: Saturday - Sunday 12 PM - 7 PM
Website: https://www.facebook.com/randylandpgh/
Admission: Free, donations encouraged
Transportation: Bus, car (street parking), bike (no onsite lock site), and walking
Randyland
Since its establishment within Pittsburgh’s Mexican War Streets 21 years ago, Randyland has made a name for itself worldwide. Though visitors will see more than enough motivational quotes to get them through the year, it’s more than just the painted and printed words that make this outdoor art gallery so special.
Meet the visionary behind it all, Randy Gilson, a man with bleached blonde hair and a contagious attitude that will make you want to talk with him for hours. When Randy moved into the neighborhood many years ago, he was disheartened by the area’s drabness. He recycled materials he found laying around, and covered them in colorful designs. Eventually, he invested in an abandoned building and made it his home and canvas, for everyone to see. This was the start of Randyland.
This place is one of Pittsburgh’s best-kept secrets. The moment you spot the building, you can feel the positive energy surrounding it, which only grows as you enter the colorful courtyard. Randy’s proud, kind voice seems to always be floating through the air as he preaches to visitors about his childhood hardships and the life lessons he’s learned from them.
Randy grew up with five siblings, was raised by a single mother, and often struggling to find food and places to live. He faced a hard time in school, and was hard on himself as a result. But then he discovered the sanctuary of his art, and made it his mission to give back to others and be an inspiration to all. Today, he is doing just that.
Although Randy himself is more than enough incentive to visit this spectacle, his creations are mesmerizing. Everywhere you turn, you find a new cluster of details that bundle together, giving profound visual and spiritual experiences. From the flowers painted on the purple trellis, to the rainbow of metal lawn chairs lining the next-door fire escape, you are bound to find at least one part of Randyland that will resonate with you.
The magical courtyard is open “almost everyday,” as the website shares. It is free to visit, but donations are appreciated to help with maintenance. The gallery is easily accessible by bike, car, and public transportation, and is not hard to miss on the corner of Arch and Jacksonia Streets. Pittsburgh’s rich history and culture make hidden gems like Randyland inevitable to exist, but this one will surely leave its mark.
Walking in a Pittsburgh Wonderland
When wandering through the Mexican War Streets of Pittsburgh, one would not expect to find a vivid, psychedelic dream home amongst the unsuspecting rowhouses. But that’s exactly what you’ll stumble upon when you turn down Jacksonia Street—a rainbow river of bricks leading up to the most colorful structure in the entire city: Randyland. This bizarre, brightly painted building and courtyard museum is the passion project of Randy Gilson, an artist and beloved community member in Pittsburgh’s Northside.
Loose Parts Make a Whole Heart
“Creativity is for the gifted few: the rest of us are compelled to live in environments constructed by the gifted few, listen to the gifted few’s music, use gifted few’s inventions and art…This is what our education and culture conditions us to believe, and this is a culturally induced and perpetuated lie” (Nicholson 5). To painter and sculptor Simon Nicholson, today’s society fails to give individuals the opportunity to experiment in their environments. Randy Gilson, the father of the one and only Randyland, could not agree more.