Consortium of foundations bids to buy August Wilson Center; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 4/8/14

Mark Belko, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Consortium of foundations bids to buy August Wilson Center:

"A consortium of local foundations has stepped forward with a bid to buy the beleaguered Downtown property with the goal of preserving its mission as a center of African-American arts programming.

Led by the Pittsburgh Foundation, the local group submitted a joint bid last week to conservator Judith Fitzgerald, the former bankruptcy judge charged with selling the building to pay off a $7 million delinquent mortgage and other debts.

"The Pittsburgh Foundation is among a small group of local foundations that is developing a joint initiative in efforts to preserve the August Wilson Center and to safeguard its purpose as the pre-eminent community resource for African-American arts programming," John Ellis, a Pittsburgh Foundation spokesman, said in a statement...

"The foundation consortium's primary objective is to explore opportunities to save the August Wilson Center in hope that it may reopen and remain operating for the long term fulfilling its essential role as a community hub for African-American arts and culture.""