In The News

The August Wilson Center is looking for a leader. An online job posting recently went live for an executive director of the African American Cultural Center, the group that owns and operates the August Wilson Center. 

A main reason people are drawn to works of art is the chance to see themselves reflected in them. So it was for dancer/choreographer Jasmine Hearn, whose blue, sable, and burning took inspiration from a few other artists’ works.  The 40-minute piece, funded by The Pittsburgh Foundation, grew out of Hearn’s solo work CINDER, which was made while she was an artist-in-residence at Dance Source Houston’s The BARN.

Western Pennsylvania must work harder at attracting immigrants and improving the quality of life for all residents — particularly low-income people of all colors and ethnic minorities — to fuel the region's economic growth, public officials said Monday during a celebration honoring Martin Luther King Jr. inside the August Wilson Center for African American Culture in Downtown Pittsburgh. (The Foundation's Maxwell King and the Heinz Endowments' Grant Oliphant quoted.)

Many nonprofits worry that Mr. Trump’s campaign promises — which include repealing the Affordable Care Act; altering how the federal government distributes Medicare and Medicaid funding; increasing defense spending; and cutting government spending on nondefense programs like affordable housing — would dramatically affect the at-risk and vulnerable populations they serve. (Greater Pittsburgh Nonprofit Partnership's Samantha Balbier and The Foundation's Jeanne Pearlman quoted.)

A sprawling analysis from a consortium of the nation’s 70 largest urban school districts found that student achievement trends in Pittsburgh Public Schools showed little to no improvement in the last decade. But Michael Casserly, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools, emphasized that the school system “is not broken” and has the “talent, the will, and the determination” to rebound over the next several years. The Pittsburgh Promise lauded in the report.

Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh grantee Mukwae Wabei Siyolwe is named in this round up of creative forces. Some are new to Pittsburgh. Others were born in the Steel City and are now just hitting their stride. They’re innovators, they’re visionaries, they’re creative forces, and they’re working to make Pittsburgh — and in some cases, the world — a better place to live.

Aaron Thomas was 14 when a Pittsburgh police drug task force raided the Garfield home where he lived with his parents, whose lives were ruled by an addiction to cocaine and heroin. That led to his first encounter with the juvenile justice system. But the time he would spend in…

Pittsburgh City Council finished its 2016 meetings Thursday with a brief final session, approving a grant program for Pittsburgh Promise alumni. The revenue agreement with Rivers Casino will set aside $60,000 in initial funding to be split between employers and Pittsburgh Promise alumni hired by those organizations. The Pittsburgh Promise program has issued more than 7,100 scholarships to Pittsburgh Public Schools graduates since 2008.  

Pittsburgh Filmmakers/Pittsburgh Center for the Arts has a new leader, Germaine Williams, who should be able to hit the ground running when he begins the job Jan. 23. Although the group has been through a turbulent period, it rebounded nicely during the past year. Mr. Williams is well positioned to help it achieve more progress.

Donations to charity always peak during the traditional holiday giving period that stretches from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day. “It’s kind of a perfect storm for charitable giving,” said Yvonne Maher, senior vice president of development and donor services at the Pittsburgh Foundation. “You have a really strong stock market, lots of appreciated securities and the proposed cap on charitable deductions.”