As the August Wilson Center for African American Culture approaches its first anniversary, it can look back on an inaugural year of dreams fulfilled and debt deferred.

On the plus side is the building itself, a critically acclaimed $42 million gem with an iconic four-story, metal-and-glass "sail" inspired by the Swahili trading ships that carried African culture abroad. Fourteen years in the planning, and in the midst of a national recession, the center opened its doors in September with much celebration.

Since then, the building on Liberty Avenue, Downtown, has held 30 events in its 500-seat, state-of-the-art theater. Next month, it will host the annual meeting of the Association of African American Museums, evidence of its rising national profile.

It also has a new president/CEO in the person of Andre Kimo Stone Guess, who came in April from Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York. He lives Downtown with his wife and two daughters, who will attend Pittsburgh CAPA 6-12 in the fall.

Mr. Guess has a grand vision for the center and makes an enthusiastic case for how doable it is.

The downside is mostly about the money. Even with millions of dollars donated by public, corporate, philanthropic and individual sources, the center racked up $11.2 million in debt from construction cost overruns and fundraising shortfalls. A loan of the same amount was issued by a consortium of banks led by Dollar Bank to pay creditors. The center has raised $2 million with local fundraising but still has $9 million outstanding.

A hole that big cannot be filled by ticket sales, and the Wilson Center is far from running at full capacity anyway.

"Usage is low now, but it's growing," Mr. Guess said.

There's no clear picture of where the money will come from. State funds for the arts are stagnant or shrinking, as is money from the Allegheny County Regional Asset District, which distributes funds from a portion of the county sales tax. And after last year's nationwide financial meltdown, local foundations cut back as well.

Still, Mr. Guess said he's confident about closing the gap through national fundraising as the center's reputation spreads.

"It starts outside Pittsburgh," he said, "with investors, philanthropies, partners and individuals."

Local efforts have been paying off as well. The African American Community Campaign, a three-part effort of challenge grants by Milton and Nancy Washington, the Dwight White Memorial Fund and the Heinz Endowments, has raised $1.3 million of its $2 million goal.

"We've raised $500,000 from the African-American community in the three months I've been here," Mr. Guess said.

In addition, he said, "Every space is rentable. We have corporate events here, anniversaries and birthday parties, even movie scenes being shot."

He's also taking full advantage of the Cultural Trust's shared services program for purchasing, marketing and ticketing.

His operating budget is balanced, he said, and the center will budget for a 5 percent surplus going forward. In the meantime, observers note, it's not likely that any local bank would foreclose on the August Wilson Center.

Mr. Guess said debt is not unusual for a new enterprise on the center's scale. Kevin McMahon, president of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, said he doubts the shortfall will cause long-term damage.

"Of course the financial situation is very serious," Mr. McMahon said. "But it's also a new venture in stressed economic times, and it has all the right ingredients to be successful. It will overcome this."

The center is "still a work in progress," said Janet Sarbaugh, director of the arts and culture program at the Heinz Endowments, which has given the center more than $7 million since 2004 and is now making annual operating grants based on its performance.

"It faces a lot of challenges, but it's no different from the beginning of any cultural institution. It needs breathing space to stabilize and realize its full potential."

Neil Barclay was the center's first CEO and for six years the driving force behind its development. He left just before it opened to run the National Black Arts Festival in Atlanta. He said that Pittsburgh's black history is profound, and people across the country recognize that -- partly due to August Wilson's plays, most of them set in the Hill District, where the playwright grew up.

"He gave Pittsburgh a national platform," Mr. Barclay said. "With its history of jazz, music and art from people like himself and Romare Bearden [whose 1983 collage "The Piano Lesson" inspired Mr. Wilson's play of the same name], people know there's something worthy of memorializing."

Mr. Barclay noted that the theater was deliberately designed for 500 seats to fill a gap in the Cultural District, which needed a more intimate space.

"The artists we talk to just love that room," he said. "It has a huge stage, bigger than the Byham's. It also has a sprung-wood floor wall to wall so it's better for dancers. They can jump off stage and not get shin splints."

As to whether the center will bleed programming of interest to black audiences from other groups, both Mr. McMahon and Mr. Guess say no.

"All our organizations have very diverse programming, and that will continue," Mr. McMahon said. "We believe the August Wilson Center will add to the audience, not simply split the ones that already exist."

Ms. Sarbaugh said the center is not like anything else in the country.

"It's a new kind of cultural institution," she said. "It not only looks to history but also forward. It's cross-disciplinary, which is unique. It goes beyond the western European art forms that predominate our cultural landscape. In that regard, it provides something that doesn't exist anywhere else."

In addition to the 30 performances held there since September, Mr. Guess ticked off net gains to the city's cultural scene:

• Six August Wilson Center fellows who just finished a year of work in their respective disciplines, and a new class of six getting started, chosen from a pool of 52 applicants.

• A resident dance company, the August Wilson Center Dance Ensemble, founded by Greer Reed-Jones, a former fellow of the center, with 13 dancers from around the region, including two high school students from CAPA.

• A resident big band, the Pittsburgh Jazz Orchestra, led by renowned trumpet player Sean Jones.

• First Voice, the Pittsburgh International Black Arts Festival.

• Two summer programs on Thursdays through Sept. 2 -- Lunch on Liberty, with seating and live music on the patio, and offCenter, with free entry, live entertainment and a cash bar after work.

Mr. Guess said his vision is nothing less than making the August Wilson Center "the pre-eminent institution for African-American arts and culture in the world."

He will do that, he said, by creating artistic and educational synergy. Works produced here will go out into the world, and works produced elsewhere will come here. As they influence each other, he hopes the August Wilson Center will become an instantly recognized name.

It's a big dream for any new enterprise, let alone one with a looming debt, but Mr. Guess said the ingredients are already here -- deep roots and tradition, talent, education, a cooperative spirit and now the perfect place for all of it to come together. He's already talking to community arts groups that need a home and looking for ways to bring them in.

"Y'all don't know what you've got here," he said, speaking of the enthusiasm for collaboration that is not always present in other cities. For example, he's talked with Larry Tamburri, president of the Pittsburgh Symphony, about doing chamber music concerts on the Wilson Center's stage.

"We will be partnering with everyone we can," he said. "Everyone I've called has been open to that."

Then there's the school-to-real-world component, which Mr. Guess calls necessary for developing and retaining talent in a town where the population is not growing. He describes one possible scenario:

A Pittsburgh Public Schools student from the North Side takes dance classes at the center and shows real promise. The dance ensemble director takes her under her wing. The student uses the Pittsburgh Promise, the school district's scholarship program, to attend Point Park University's dance program, graduates and joins the company. When the director retires, she takes her place.

"This young woman will have a fully developed artistic career without ever leaving Pittsburgh," he said. "That's not a lofty goal. It's very doable. We just need to connect all the dots."

On a programming level, he said, the center will be marshalling all the art forms around a theme.

"We'll have exhibitions in the galleries, literary, music, dance, theater and educational programs, so that people can make an entry anywhere along the line."

Among other plans, he hopes to open a cafe with a street entrance to draw people into the building during the day.

As for the center's growing pains, Mr. Guess told another story.

"When I came to Jazz and Lincoln Center, it was in the basement," he said. "They wanted to be the best in the world and they accomplished that. We can do that here.

"The hard work is done. You're sitting in it," he said. "We just have to convince people to invest in us. I don't think that will be hard to do because we're worth investing in. I can see what's possible."

Looking for more from the Post-Gazette? Join PG+, our members-only web site. You'll get exclusive sports content, opinion, financial information, discounts from retailers and restaurants, and more. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.