"Building a just community by protecting and celebrating freedom of creative expression."
Tour Spotlight
The exiled writer residency & Alphabet City
City of Asylum was founded to provide sanctuary to writers under threat — and that work has helped transform a block on the North Side that had experienced years of vacancy and underuse into a place where literature, music, the humanities, and public life intersect.
120+
Free public programs annually
8
Residential units at Alphabet City
$0
Cost to attend any public program
Alphabet City
Alphabet City brings the full scope of this work together under one roof — housing a performance space, bookstore, restaurant, City of Asylum's offices, and eight residential units including below-market apartments. It is a model of mixed-use, community-centered development anchored by arts and culture.
Why It Matters Right Now
At a time of increasing polarization, City of Asylum creates shared space where people come together around different perspectives and experiences, contributing to a more open and connected civic life. More than 120 free programs each year bring writers in residence alongside local, national, and international artists — activating shared space, sustaining cultural and economic activity in the neighborhood, and making the case that freedom of expression is worth defending.
Public Funding
How government investment shapes this work
Public funding supports the delivery of free public programs and helps sustain Alphabet City as an accessible civic space — enabling consistent, year-round programming without charging audiences for access.
Strong Local Funding Support: RAD
RAD support through both general operating and project-based funding is essential to this model. City of Asylum's commitment to offering all programs free of charge while ensuring artists are paid aligns directly with RAD's emphasis on broad public access — a natural fit that deserves continued and expanded investment.
At Risk: State Funding
State funding has played an important role in sustaining City of Asylum's work, though its future remains uncertain. Continued state investment in organizations that serve as civic infrastructure — free, accessible, and neighborhood-rooted — is critical to their long-term viability.
Lost: NEA Federal Funding
City of Asylum has relied on long-standing support from the National Endowment for the Arts to sustain key aspects of its programming. That funding has now been lost, and the organization is actively navigating the impact on its ability to maintain the full scope of its work.
Public + Private Together
Public funding sustains access, facilities, and neighborhood-based placemaking. Private philanthropy enables the depth of the residency program and long-term investment in writers and the organization. Together, they support an integrated model connecting sanctuary, public engagement, and community-based cultural activity.
Gaps & Risks
Where the pressure is greatest
Funding Gap
The greatest need is sustaining the full scope of the model over time. Long-term support for writers alongside more than 120 free public programs annually requires flexible, consistent investment — and maintaining free access while paying artists and stewarding facilities is where additional resources would have the greatest impact.
Pressing Risk
The model is both resource-intensive and intentionally accessible — a combination that creates ongoing tension in a changing funding environment. The loss of NEA funding sharpens this challenge. Sustaining free access while supporting artists and the spaces that make this work possible remains the central pressure point.
Biggest Opportunity
Arts-driven civic infrastructure — local and global
City of Asylum has built a model that brings together sanctuary for writers, free public programming, and neighborhood-based cultural activity — and there is an opportunity to further establish this work as a recognized form of civic infrastructure. The transformation of the North Side block that Alphabet City anchors is a demonstrable case for how arts-driven activity can activate underused spaces and sustain cultural and economic life in a neighborhood.
Simultaneously, as U.S. headquarters of the International Cities of Refuge Network, City of Asylum is positioned to further elevate Pittsburgh's visibility within a global network committed to protecting freedom of expression. With the right investment and alignment, deepening local impact and strengthening Pittsburgh's role as a place where global voices and local communities meet are not competing goals — they reinforce each other.
How You Can Help
Immediate & 12-month actions
- Sustain and grow RAD investment in City of Asylum — both general operating support and project-based funding — recognizing the direct alignment between this model and RAD's public access mandate.
- Advocate for the restoration of NEA funding and continued state investment in organizations that function as free, accessible civic and cultural infrastructure.
- Recognize City of Asylum — and organizations like it — as civic assets that contribute to neighborhood vitality, community cohesion, and Pittsburgh's national and international standing, and align public priorities and partnerships accordingly.
- Support continued investment in accessible cultural programming and the facilities that make shared public space possible — the infrastructure of a community that stays open to diverse voices and perspectives.