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Cultural center gets $1M to build museum
"Eden Hall's gift is a vote of confidence in the project," said Heather Clark, a spokeswoman for the cultural center. "Eden Hall has a history in this community of supporting projects that they think will bring something new, particularly ones with strong educational aspects. We're very pleased with their generous support."
The facility will offer permanent and temporary exhibitions on the cultural history of African-Americans in the region, a theater seating more than 400 people, classrooms and areas for community events. It is scheduled to open in fall 2007.
In December, The Heinz Endowments announced a $4 million grant to the cultural center, one of the largest grants Heinz has made to an arts or cultural group. Clark said the center will not go public with how much it has received until it has raised three-fourths of the $33.7 million project. She expects that to happen by the end of the year.
The Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh has acquired land for the center in the 900 block of Liberty Avenue.
In a prepared statement, Sylvia V. Fields, program director at Eden Hall, said the center's art, education and programming "will present a refreshing and important perspective that does not currently exist in Pittsburgh's cultural landscape."
Clark said the center will play a key role in telling the history of African-Americans in the region.
"I also think it's a new voice in the cultural landscape that will draw people to Pittsburgh," she said. "Having this center here will be a tourist attraction and will be good for economic development."
Allison G. Williams, a San Francisco architect, will design the new center.
Eden Hall was established by the will of Sebastian Mueller, a Pittsburgh philanthropist and vice president and director of the H. J. Heinz Co. Mueller, a cousin of Henry J. Heinz, came to Pittsburgh in 1884 at age 24 to work for Heinz. Mueller died in 1938.
The Eden Hall Foundation, which is based Downtown, supports programs benefitting social welfare, health, education and the arts.
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