The National Black Arts Festival on Wednesday named Neil L. Barclay, leader of the August Wilson Center for African American Culture in Pittsburgh, as its CEO and executive producer.

Barclay replaces longtime NBAF executive producer Stephanie Hughley, who resigned in March to return to the New Jersey Performing Arts Center.

He departs Pittsburgh just as the Wilson Center prepares to offer a preview Saturday of its $39.5 million facility scheduled for a Sept. 19 grand opening.

“In accepting the leadership of the nation’s premier celebration of African Diasporic culture in Atlanta, I quite simply return to working more intimately with my first loves — artists and the development of creative capital,” Barclay said in a statement released Wednesday to Pittsburgh media.

An NBAF news release credits Barclay with helping raise $34.5 million toward the center’s capital campaign, increasing its annual budget to $2.5 million and producing five seasons of visual and performing arts.

While remaining in Pittsburgh until close to the Wilson Center’s opening, Barclay will be in Atlanta for this summer’s NBAF July 29-Aug. 2. Hughley will work as a consultant during the event, scaled back from 10 days to five due to the economic downturn and sponsor cutbacks.

Barclay “is precisely the right leader at the right time for NBAF,” said board chairman Evern Cooper Epps.