August Wilson Center leader charts what’s to come
Janis Burley Wilson describes her job as leader of Downtown’s August Wilson Center for African American Culture as “building a plane while we are flying.” Some of the pieces are already in place, and many more are on the way.
The former Pittsburgh Cultural Trust VP officially stepped into the position of president and CEO of the organization on Sept. 1, in part, a continuation of her role as primary programmer for the building after it was acquired in 2014 by The Pittsburgh Foundation, Heinz Endowments and Richard King Mellon Foundation.
The progress from what had become a leaderless rental space toward bustling center shows in the posters that line the front of building and behind the scenes. Ms. Burley Wilson now has a staff of five, including Indea Herndon, who comes from the YMCA to fill the role of marketing and external affairs manager.
“She is actively engaged in creating partnerships in the community,” Ms. Burley Wilson said, sitting in the spacious upstairs lounge and framed by a portrait of the famed playwright August Wilson. “We are developing a community engagement advisory board —
a large board — to help us connect to different parts of the community as we try to connect people to all this programming that’s happening here.”
The Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival, which she had programmed from her Trust position, came with her to the AWC and lands June 15-17. Ms. Burley Wilson points to programming for February, Black History Month, as an example of the variety of events at the center that represent the mission that is inherent in its name: to celebrate and engage in African-American culture.
February brought a Valentine’s Day concert with soul singer Eric Roberson, civil rights activist Angela Davis opening the new TRUTHsayers Lecture Series on Feb. 21 and, this weekend, the second annual Black Bottom Film Festival.
The first August Wilson Community Day in July invited the public to join in the creation of a mural honoring the building’s namesake. On Dec. 9, a Holiday Edition of the community day included a performance by Reed Dance, “which was a sort of reintroduction because they were a part of the AWC, and they will be responsible for ongoing dance classes here that will start in June,” Ms. Burley Wilson said.
The next community day is scheduled for April, and on the playwright’s birthday “We have the August Wilson Society Consortium, with scholars and actors who will convene here for discussions. His widow, Constanza, will be here to give an opening keynote speech. We are working closely with the August Wilson House committee [renovating his childhood home in the Hill District] and their Block Party, and we are going to transport people from here to there in jitneys.”
She smiled at the reference — “Jitney” being among Mr. Wilson’s Pittsburgh-set plays.
On the day it was announced that Ms. Burley Wilson would head the center (she’s not related to the playwright), she said that her aim was for the center to become an international destination, a la the Studio Museum in Harlem or The Andy Warhol Museum, and that having the building named for the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright was “like a gift.”
“If you are in another country, and you say, ‘Andy Warhol Museum,’ people are familiar with it. And that’s what we want for this facility. While it is definitely going to be connected to the local community, we have the name August Wilson to catapult the center nationally and globally.”
Today, you can walk through the sliding glass door and see exhibitions in the center’s three galleries. Currently, they are: “The Dynamics of Gender: African Art From Chatham University,” curatedby Chatham students; “Transformative Space: The N’Namdi Collection,” including a work by renowned artist and Peabody High School graduate Romare Bearden; and “Reflect Reinforce,” a fashion exhibition developed in partnership with Olorgesailie Maasai Women Artisans in Kenya and The Beading Wolves of Oneida Indian Nation.
“The galleries are a large, expansive footprint, so you can bring important exhibits here, and we have three right now,” Ms. Burley Wilson said. She added that one of the galleries could someday give up some of its space for a permanent tribute to August Wilson, something that also is in the works, along with plans to announce the return of artists residencies next year.
Although she used an airplane to describe her role as AWC leader, the building was designed to resemble a ship, specifically the Swahili trading ships that carried East African culture to shores across the Atlantic.
Her job is to right a ship thathad been foundering with financial woes since it was openedin 2009. One of her first actswas to change the center’s logo, to incorporate the building’s shape with the name of August Wilson, whose plays remain among the most produced theatrical works worldwide. Last week, the AWC launched an updated, dynamic website, www.aaccawc.org, with a contribution from Constanza Romero that addresses her husband’s legacy.
Just as the August Wilson Center will continue to expand its projects and staff, the board of directors also expects to announce new members in the coming months. It now consists of board president Michael Polite, the three foundation board presidents, Richard W. Taylor of ImbuTec and Duquesne University School of Law professor Tracey McCants Lewis, who was by Ms. Burley Wilson’s side while spending the day at the center.
“I’m the newest board member of the bunch,” Ms. Lewis said, “and I think there has been a great progression, but it is a cautious and very thoughtful progression. First and foremost, we are getting a strategic plan together so that the mission of the center moves forward. We are making sure we get community input and that our programming reflects what the community wants so we can get themto come to the center.
“I feel that happening, and the first step was getting a leader in here.”