This was a disaster from concept on, Pittsburgh has tons of places to perform theater, in fact the downtown area has been completely revitalized by a multi-decade effort to create and encourage a theater district downtown.
That has all been successful, but this thing was just a turd from the get go... the issue is simply this, like it or not, african americans don’t in Pittsburgh at least, go to the theater, PERIOD. Go walk Penn Avenue any friday or saturday night and you will find it bustling with theater goers, and symphony goers, and artsy fartsy types doing gallery crawls, and you will also notice that African Americans by and large aren’t among the crowds.
Pittsburgh is still a very segregated city not by law, but by socioeconomy, most of the African American community are not in the middle or upper classes. They work in the service industry and hourly wage jobs overwhelmingly. There was no need for another theater or performing arts center beyond those that the city already had, and there was never financial support among the african american community to have one dedicated primarily for that purpose.
The only reason I think this thing got built in the first place was no one wanted to be labeled a racist by pointing out it wouldn’t work.
I go to a big cartoon convention every year in the ‘burgh and love the city. Yes there is a big cultural district with places like the Benedum (a blues band I know recorded a live album there), Heinz Hall etc
>>There was no need for another theater or performing arts center beyond those that the city already had, and there was never financial support among the african american community to have one dedicated primarily for that purpose.
yes--this happened in a small city in the California Central Valley that i lived in for 12 years... there was an old abandoned theater down town... this man bought it... the city decided they wanted it and took it via eminent domain... they wanted to build a Theatre/Cultural Center... so they did... and nobody came... there was no market for it... and it is true that just because you build it, that does not mean that he/they will come...
this is how it is with people with no mind for business... look at Obamacare... they built it... nobody wants it enough to pay for it... you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink...
The Andy Warhol museum would go nicely in that building. The homosexual commercial artist moved to NYC early in his career but that may be a fundraising plus.