The headphones for the Homewood, Hill District and Hazelwood oral history exhibits rest silently in their cradles. The artwork, save for a dozen photos by Charles “Teenie” Harris, is all in storage. The August Wilson Center for African American Culture is dark, but if all goes well, it will again be open and vibrant by spring.
The Pittsburgh Foundation, which now owns the center, along with its partners the R.K. Mellon Foundation and the Heinz Endowments, announced Dec. 4 that it has created a temporary governance board—foundation heads Maxwell King, Scott Izzo and Grant Oliphant—to oversee the center until its Building Board is empanelled to manage the building and its finances.
“Over the next three to six months, the temporary board will conduct a search for qualified people to put together the Building Board,” said Pittsburgh Foundation spokesman Doug Root. “It will be majority African-American and will hire a director.”
King said the board will consist of three to five members who have expertise in real estate, business, finance and nonprofit facilities management. He said he is not planning to appoint anyone from the center’s previous management teams.
In the interim, Root said during a media-only tour of the center, personnel from the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust will conduct a detailed inventory of the center’s assets and evaluation of the building’s condition.
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