There is no other place like Town Hall. Not in Seattle, not anywhere. What’s presented on our stages—robotics to food ethics, poetry slams to chamber music, even spelling bees and civic debates—is a real-time reflection of the curiosity, the creativity, and the diversity of our community.
As our fiscal year comes to a close, we invite you to make a year-end, tax-deductible donation in support of Town Hall programming. Your gift, in addition to your membership support, helps sustain our commitment to community.
In addition to the 450+ events you have come to expect during a Town Hall season, this season was marked by two highlights that exemplify not only Town Hall’s commitment to community engagement but our tremendous convening power: last fall’s City Council Debates and this spring’s GiveBIG: Lunch Break event.
During last fall’s City Council Debates, Town Hall partnered with neighborhood community groups to produce a debate in each district at a neighborhood venue (from Rainier Valley Cultural Center to Phinney Neighborhood Association), as well as the two at-large debates at the Seattle Central Library in partnership with CityClub. This was the most ambitious political program Town Hall has ever produced, and it offered nearly 700 people from across the city the opportunity to interact directly with their local representatives and engage in our political process. This style of programming is also a precursor to Town Hall’s 2017-18 season, which will offer programs in venues around the city while we perform major renovation to our 100-year-old First Hill home.
This spring’s GiveBIG: Lunch Break event is also emblematic of Town Hall’s commitment to community. On May 3, in partnership with The Seattle Foundation, Town Hall hosted 25 local nonprofits to share their missions and highlight our collective impact. In addition to the “nonprofit open house” in our lobby, eleven nonprofits took over the Great Hall for a three-hour, live-streamed showcase. As well as serving as a space for our community to get to know many of Seattle’s diverse nonprofits, this event highlighted the diversity of nonprofits that take the stage at Town Hall each year through our affordable rental program.
These events are just two examples of Town Hall’s convening power and why Town Hall is now more critical to our community than ever. As we lay the groundwork for a major renovation of our 100-year-old building, we rely more than ever on the support, advocacy and participation of the 4,000 members who keep this place accessible to all in our diverse community – members like you.
You are already supporting Town Hall in so many ways through your membership. Please consider making an additional year-end gift in support of our community’s cultural center — a place unlike anywhere in the world, a place that is uniquely for and about our community in Seattle.
