August Wilson African American Center in big trouble (Pittsburgh, Liberty: live, cost of)

[Love2Golf09]

Looks like it might be forced to close already due to lack of funding. Too bad. I wish I could say that I'm shocked, but I'm not. From the beginning I felt that this project was really bizarre. It had too little funding, considering the cost of tearing down almost an entire block on Liberty Ave and building this huge new cultural center. Personally, I just didn't see the demand that would be needed to keep this large of a project going. I felt that it would have been much better in a smaller building, maybe on the North Side close to the Warhol and Children's Museums. I was called a racist for saying this project was a stupid waste of taxpayers' money, but here we are.


No savior emerges for Pittsburgh arts center - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

[BrianTH]

If you are going to do a new performance center, it makes sense to do it in the Cultural District (although I was personally never happy that they tore down the buildings on that block). I think Ferlo's counterproposal to use the same money on a bunch of existing institutions/buildings makes more sense.

Anyway, arts projects all over the country are suffering financially because of the recession, so this is a fairly common tale. At a guess, all this is basically posturing at this point, meaning the center won't actually close (because that would be too harmful to too many different interests).

[aveojohn]

It's too big, it's too ugly and it's in the wrong place= FAILER

[Ann_Arbor]

They should retro-fit it

[jimmyev]

I think it's kind of odd in Pittsburgh because it has such a relatively small African-American population. Seems like something such as the Buffalo Soldiers National Museum, in a city with a lot of African-American culture and history, could use a building like that and be much more successful.

[BrianTH]

The City itself is something like 28% black, and there is a deep black cultural history.

[Copanut]

I'll take a wild guess that I'm one of the few that have seen every August Wilson play, especially those in the old Pittsburgh Playhouse on the NorTside. He was a great story teller, but only a blip when it comes to playwrights. Spending that much money on a triple A player was nuts. They should have dumped that money into the Crawford Grill.

[Ann_Arbor]

I get my African American culture on at the Shadow Lounge in East Liberty. Great music- soul, funk, jazz, reggae, rap nights- good drinks and a wonderful mix of people

[fleetiebelle]

Originally Posted by Copanut

I'll take a wild guess that I'm one of the few that have seen every August Wilson play, especially those in the old Pittsburgh Playhouse on the NorTside. He was a great story teller, but only a blip when it comes to playwrights. Spending that much money on a triple A player was nuts. They should have dumped that money into the Crawford Grill.

I thought that the center was named after August Wilson, not dedicated solely to his work. I know they supposedly have an in-house jazz orchestra led by Sean Jones, and do dance and music events.

[Pitt Chick]

Their events are few; they are only open three days a week; the employ security guards 24/7 when an alarm system would do....
sounds like they have plenty to work on.

And it IS just named after him, not dedicated to his work.

The A-A community clamored for a place of their own. Yet attendance could be better as could donations. They need to step up and support it!