Following Denzel Washington’s weekend visit to the Hill District to assist with the grand opening of the August Wilson House, the University of Pittsburgh Library System announced today a $1 million grant from the Henry L. Hillman Foundation to support the opening of and the public’s engagement with its August Wilson Archive.
This grant, the largest in the history of the University of Pittsburgh Library System (ULS), follows two years of support and other charitable donations toward in-depth public engagement with the archive, which is scheduled to open to the public in January.
In 2020, the ULS acquired the archive of the acclaimed Pittsburgh native, considered one of the greatest American playwrights. All 10 plays in his American Century Cycle were produced on Broadway — two earning Wilson the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
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Funding from the Hillman Foundation will support the final stages of processing the archive — comprising more than 450 boxes of materials such as draft scripts, artwork, plaques, correspondence and a guitar — and focus on partnering with groups and organizations both locally and nationally to see the Wilson archive come to life.
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area.
He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit.
Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.
