Nearly every city has its own music scene, and in that regard, its own history. In Pittsburgh the scene from 1978 to 1982 proves a pivotal time according to “Non-Punk Pittsburgh,” an exhibit of documentary photography and film currently on display at the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust‘s SPACE gallery Downtown.

“The Steelers had just won their fourth Super Bowl and the Pirates had won the World Series, nobody cared that much for art, and for sure nobody cared about punk rock,” says photographer Larry Rippel, one of the show’s organizers.

Nevertheless Pittsburgh’s music and art scene endured, says Rippel, “It was about 50 people who came together to do music, art, photography, zines, and other creative pursuits.

Blatent Image Galley, which became Silver Eye Gallery, was born out of this group of creative people who wanted an outlet for their creativity and to also have fun. We made our art and we made our own fun.”

If you were a young person back then, you may remember seeing bands like A.T.S., the Cynics, the Young Radishes, the Compulsives, the Pukes, Hans Brinker, the Dykes, the Shakes, the Cardboards, Carsickness and Dress Up As Natives, among many others. Or at least seeing the cheap cut-and-paste posters for their gigs at places like The Decade, Electric Banana, Danny’s Pub, Small World or Graffitti.

“We were always on the hunt for a good place to play,” says Dennis Childers, co-organizer of the exhibit and drummer for the band Carsickness.

It was Childers, an art teacher at Pittsburgh’s CAPA high school, that pulled together the nearly 100 images that plaster the walls of SPACE. “I sat over a light table for about seven months looking at old negatives that were taken way back in the day,” he says.

Here visitors will find images of all of the aforementioned bands, plus dozens of others, captured by photographers Kevin Brunelle, Tom Jefferson, Janet McGough, Martha Rial, Stacy Weiss, Harriet Stein, Steve Sciulli, Bruce Tovsky, Lorraine Vullo, Bill Wade, Tracy Wuischpard, and of course Rippel.

Such as his picture of The Cardboards, with Ron Solo on synthesizer, Max Haste on vocals, Bill Bored on drums, and Keith Teeth on saxophone, performing at the Mattress Factory in 1980.

Childers says the newly minted museum for installation art was to also be the location of the first gig for his band Carsickness.

But, says Steve Sciulli, original keyboardist for Carsickness, “The Lions Walk was the first place we played — Jan. 5, 1980. We had five bands with films playing. The place was packed.”

On Friday evening, April 24, SPACE was packed in similar fashion when Carsickness opened its set at 8 p.m. during the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s Spring Gallery Crawl.

It was the first time the band played together in 35 years, with lead singer Karl Mullen flying in all the way the from the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts for the event.

It was also an album release party of sorts for “Carsickness: 1979-1982,” a compilation drawing on the band’s catalog, recently released by Pittsburgh’s Get Hip Records ($10).

Listening to their music, one cannot help but draw associations to punk rock.

“It was a called a punk scene back in the day, but when we started looking back at it, it really wasn’t the punk scene that was going on in the rest of the world or around the country,” Childers says. “It was really just this explosion of creativity and art back in that time period when Pittsburgh was kind of struggling with all the mills closing and stuff.”

“Pittsburgh was really kind of grungy and dirty back in those days,” recalls Childers. “For us, we were having an awesome time running around playing music in Market Square and other places.”

The film and video portion of the exhibit includes four video compilations Childers created, two of which are set to the music of Carsickness, and two of which are to the music of The Cardboards. Screened much larger on one wall, old footage of an interview with The Pukes from WTAE makes a fitting backdrop to an otherwise grungy feeling exhibit as it is.

And in a back room, Stephanie Beroes’ documentary film “Debt Begins at Twenty” plays on.

A quasi-fictional documentary about the Pittsburgh punk scene, it brings to life this defining moment in Pittsburgh music history, as does the alluring photographs that make up this most interesting exhibit.

Kurt Shaw is the Tribune-Review art critic.

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