Future Tenant started six years ago and is a joint project between the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and Carnegie Mellon University. The program started more as a conversation. The idea for Future Tenant came about when the College of Fine Arts (CFA) at Carnegie Mellon wanted a place to display their students’ art.

“In 2002, it started with just an empty space that the College of Fine Art students was putting their art in and doing a show. After that, they thought we have this great program at CFA with visual arts, and we have this great program for arts management. Why not have both of them working together?” Mary Sheridan, director of Future Tenant, said.

Six years later, Future Tenant is still a part of the master for arts management program, which second-year students run as directors. Jamie Leondari and Mary Sheridan are the sixth set of directors for Future Tenant. The space for this program is donated by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust.

Under the directors are five associate directors who are first-year students in the masters program. The associates are in charge of five different programs: visual programming, performance programming, marketing programming, technology programming and fundraising.

Future Tenant also hosts other events, such as an open mic night, and is currently working on “Trespass,” where amateur musicians, dancers and comedians can perform in front of an audience. More information can be found at www.futuretenant.org.