My wife grew up in Pittsburgh. I can ask her some things about it; I was there once when I was young, and thought it was really pretty, but it's been forever since I was there.
They do have excellent art museums (Carnegie, Warhol, Mattress Factory, etc), diverse neighborhoods, and lots of hilly terrain to hike/bike/walk around and explore.
Pitt's jazz program is pretty top-notch and I would think that there'd be some way to get involved as a community member.