August Wilson African American Cultural Center
Pittsburgh, PA
Honoring the power of our stories, the August Wilson African American Cultural Center (AWAACC) is a non-profit, multidisciplinary arts center open to all, standing in the heart of Pittsburgh's Cultural District at 980 Liberty Avenue. Named for the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and Pittsburgh native whose ten-play cycle chronicled a century of African American life, we are one of the largest cultural centers of our kind in the United States, dedicated to sharing the African American experience and presenting artistic expression that reflects the prestige, authority, and vision illuminated in the work of August Wilson.
Our home is a place for gathering, discovery, and connection. Inside, visitors find galleries of rotating and permanent exhibitions, including our anchor experience, August Wilson: The Writer's Landscape, which invites you into the world and words of the man himself. Beyond the galleries, the Center houses a 500-seat theater, classrooms, a cafe, a gift shop, and flexible multi-purpose spaces that host visual art, music, dance, film, and conversation throughout the year.
Programming at AWAACC spans festivals, exhibitions, live performance, and education. We present the Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival, welcome artists and thinkers for curator talks and gallery crawls, and hold community touchpoints such as Sunday Reset, jazzjAM, and networking series that keep our doors open to neighbors and newcomers alike. Our education work reaches young people through programs like our youth writers camp, nurturing the next generation of storytellers in the tradition August Wilson so powerfully modeled.
We believe Black creativity and innovation are an impetus for heartfelt human connection. Every exhibition, performance, and class is grounded in that belief, celebrating African American culture and its enduring contributions to American life while honoring Pittsburgh's own rich history, including the Hill District that shaped so much of Wilson's writing. As a community beacon, we champion artists and programs that reflect the universal questions of identity, belonging, and resilience found across Wilson's work and in the world around us today.
Whether you come to view a new exhibition, take in a concert, bring your family to a community day, or simply share a quiet hour with the stories on our walls, you are welcome here. The August Wilson African American Cultural Center invites all people to see themselves in the fullness of the Black experience, and to leave inspired to connect, create, and belong.
Black-owned
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