Let’s Talk About Tacoma Arts Live and Theater Management with David Fischer (Aug. 18, 2021)

Crossing Division

Perhaps you’ve read the stories in the News Tribune. Perhaps you’ve seen the concerns on social media. It’s true. After four decades, Tacoma’s historic theaters will no longer be managed by local non-profit Tacoma Arts Live.

Tacoma’s beautiful historic theaters, and the downtown theater district, are jewels of our city. We wanted to better understand what happened, and why management of these resources was changing now, in the midst of a pandemic, when every arts venue is trying to just hang on until things get better. Why would Tacoma want to request proposals and throw the live performance spaces into chaos now?

David Fischer, Executive Director of Tacoma Arts Live, talks with host Evelyn Lopez about what happened, how he learned that the City would not be negotiating an extension to the existing theater management contract, but would be throwing the contract open to new bidders, and why TAL felt that it could not submit a proposal.

TAL will survive, and has some exciting plans for this year. But will a global corporate booking entity bring the same passion and community focus to our live arts scene? Only time will tell.

Link to the RFP: https://www.cityoftacoma.org/UserFiles/Servers/Server_6/File/cms/Purchasing/FormalBids/PF21-0466F.pdf

Thoughts on this episode? Ideas for other topics? Get in touch!

Evelyn Lopez: [e-mail] @True_Tacoma