Floundering Pittsburgh Arts Center Handed to Conservator

A Pennsylvania judge has turned over control of Pittsburgh’s August Wilson Center for African American Culture in a final effort to avert liquidation of the performing-arts venue opened with much fanfare in 2009, writes The New York Times.

The article details the management and financial travails of the $42-million center, built to honor Mr. Wilson, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of a cycle of plays about the lives of working-class African-Americans in his native Pittsburgh. The bank that holds a mortgage on the property started foreclosure proceedings in September after receiving no payments for eight months.