The exhibits, performances, and seminars at the August Wilson House are produced within the literary, artistic and professional tradition of August Wilson. For example, each April, we have an August Wilson Birthday Block Party, open to the public, with streets blocked off, inclusive of food trucks, vendors, tech spaces, performing arts, fun and fellowship for all ages. For example in August 2016,
the August Wilson House partnered with Board Member, Mark Clayton Southers' Pittsburgh Playwrights Theater Company to produce August Wilson's "Seven Guitars" in the backyard of the House. In the future, we expect that talented faculty members from regional universities will operate educational workshops at the August Wilson House, with graduate students who are pursuing a Masters in Fine Arts. We anticipate that these students will mentor emerging cultural arts students enrolled at the Creative Arts Performing Academy (CAPA) High School. Professional artists will engage in residencies at the August Wilson House, while sharing their works-in-progress with the Community. Student artists will be expected to learn from the philosophy of August Wilson, engage in educational teleconferencing, receive technical support from the universities, and produce academic works in completion of their respective curriculum. Seminars offered at the August Wilson Home will include such items as resume-building, literary production, musical composition, speech and singing lessons, musical performances and spoken word delivery and visual arts production, with technical feedback from invited guests, and even some dance lessons from participating program instructors. We expect that the Community’s activities will be conducted by faculty members from local educational institutions, visiting professors and professionals who have expertise and background on the particular subject matter, visiting artists and celebrities who have consented beforehand to provide guidance and feedback to the students, and volunteer members of relevant local community groups. The programs at the August Wilson House will be for the benefit of the student participants as well as the public in general. Our intention is to nurture, develop, support, and otherwise assist cultural artists to flourish and then one day give back to the Community with their own experience and input, creating a cycle of quality cultural arts developments and opportunities that have not previously existed for talented members of the community. We believe that establishing an institution that supports talented artists, students, scholars and arts professionals is one of the best ways to honor the legacy of the late August Wilson, who despite having talents that were promising and obvious at an early age, was denied access to such support and encouragement.
