August Wilson Center Names New CEO
PITTSBURGH (AP) - Pittsburgh's August Wilson Center for African American Culture has hired a new CEO and president to run the nonprofit as it recovers financially from near foreclosure.
Janis Burley Wilson was named Thursday as the center's new leader. She's not related to the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright.
Wilson has been a primary events programmer for center since 2014.
The center opened in 2009 in honor of the late playwright and Pittsburgh native. However, it never covered its construction costs and low attendance left the downtown center further mired in debt.
It was acquired by the Pittsburgh Foundation, Heinz Endowments and Richard King Mellon Foundation in 2014, saving it from foreclosure.
August Wilson wrote mostly about the 20th-century African-American experience from growing up in Pittsburgh's historically black Hill District.
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