Staff Spotlight: Sarah Szabo, Senior Manager, Individual Giving

Dec 13, 2016 | Staff Spotlight, Town Hall News

Sarah Szabo

How long have you worked at Town Hall?

2 years and 3 months.

What attracted you to working at Town Hall?

I love the diversity of Town Hall’s programming. As someone who has a wide variety of interests Town Hall provides engaging talks and performances for all of me and not just one of my interests.

What book could you read over and over again?

I love Greek mythology and The Iliad was the poem that started me down that path. I read it once a year along with Edith Hamilton’s Mythology.

Who would you most like to see presented at Town Hall?

I am a huge history buff and I believe that it is through, not only the acknowledgement of the events that make up our history (good or bad), but the critical analysis of the culture at the time that led to decisions being made that will lead us to make more educated decisions in the future. So I would love to see even more authors/educators take our stage to engage in discussion of our history and how it relates to our present.

When you are not working, what are you doing?

When I am in town you will find me at the movies more often than not, but I have also started scuba diving in the last year and a half, so am typically somewhere in the Sound once a month. I also take every opportunity to travel, so at least 3 weeks a year I am out of the country on an adventure—my first trip to Japan is coming up in February.

What is one thing people may not know about you?

I always like to keep my hands busy, which is why I have a constant hands-on art project I am working on, whether it is a sculpting class or using my new colored pencils, I can sit for hours, but my hands will be moving. I am in the middle of cross-stitching a Christmas stocking for my father right now and I am loving every second of it!

What aspect of your job do you never get tired of?

Meeting our members, Town Hall has such a large group of dedicated members that we see week after week and it has been a joy to get to know so many of them over the past two years.

Upcoming Events

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Rental Partner: The Seattle Times presents

Why are Restaurants So Expensive?

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dTown Hall Seattle is committed to accessibility for audiences and artists alike. From our ticketing policies to the capacities of our physical space, our goal is for Town Hall to be a place where everyone can take part, be inspired, and use their voice to shape our future.

Our Venue

In 2019, Town Hall Seattle completed a $35 million renovation, providing an even more accessible home for our city’s conversations and creativity. Core accessibility features of the renovation include:

  • At-grade entrances (8th Ave Entrance to The Lobby, and West Entrance facing Downtown Seattle)
  • Restrooms for all genders and bodies. Our building features 17 all-gender restrooms on our lobby level, as well as ADA-accessible restrooms on the lobby and Forum level
  • Church pew/bench seats with wheelchair and companion seating in The Great Hall, and variable/movable seating in The Wyncote NW Forum and The Mehdi Reading Room
  • A modern, spacious elevator serving all three levels of the building and a wheelchair lift for speaker access to the Forum green room
  • Wheelchair ramp leading to the Forum Stage and wheelchair access via the elevator to the Great Hall stage
  • Accessible backstage areas, restrooms, and green rooms serviced by an elevator
  • Speaker and presenter seating for all bodies and abilities
  • A Hearing Loop system in all three performance spaces. Using T-Coil (wireless receiver) technology, the hearing loop system projects voices and sounds directly from the microphone into an individual’s hearing aid.
  • Braille on permanent room signage throughout the building

A Note on Transportation and Parking

Town Hall Seattle does not have a designated parking lot. Our venue is served by frequent bus routes, is near access to light rail stations, and close to a number of parking options nearby – including discounted, ADA parking at LAZ Parking (6th Ave Coast Seattle Downtown Hotel Garage). Learn more about parking options and discounted parking nearby here.

Program Accessibility & Livestreaming

Town Hall strives to ensure that all audience members can participate fully in our programs. We make every effort to provide real-time captioning (CART), ASL interpretation, translation and transcription services, and seating accommodations upon request.

Town Hall currently provides livestreaming for select events. An event may be livestreamed under any of the following circumstances:

  • In-person tickets to the event are sold out or anticipated to sell out
  • Livestreaming is requested by a speaker or co-presenting partner
  • Livestreaming is requested by a ticket buyer
  • The event topic is relevant to disability or disability justice

Audio and/or video recordings of most Town Hall-produced programs are available to the public approximately 2 weeks after the initial event date. You can find Town Hall’s digital content by visiting the Audio & Video Archives, and by subscribing to our podcasts and YouTube channel.

We do our best to honor livestream requests, pending staffing and permission from speakers and publishers. Contact access@townhallseattle.org to request accessibility services, ask questions, or to let us know what other accommodation you need to participate fully. Please provide at least 2 weeks’ advance notice when requesting CART and Livestreaming, and at least 4 weeks’ notice when requesting ASL.

For more information about our entrances, accessibility requests, and more, check out our Plan Your Visit pages.

Economic Accessibility

Town Hall strives to ensure that the cost of admission is never a barrier to participation. Almost all Town Hall-produced events are available on a sliding scale starting at $10, and many events are free. To break down further barriers to access, our 22 & Under initiative launched in 2019 with support from the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, making most Town Hall-produced programs free for everyone aged 22 & Under.

If the ticket price to a Town Hall-produced program poses a barrier for you, please contact patronservices@townhallseattle.org for economic accommodations.

Economic Access for Rental Partners: We operate our stages with the same deep commitment to economic accessibility; our performance spaces are the most affordable in the region among similarly sized venues. We underwrite rental rates and related services for other small and midsized nonprofits and mission-aligned producers to help level the cultural playing field and ensure that everyone can afford to take the stage.

Note: Town Hall does not set the ticket prices for Rental Partner events. Our sliding scale ticketing model and 22 & Under tickets do not extend to programs produced by Rental Partners. To identify rental events, look for the gray “Rental Partner” label on our website and printed calendar.

Town Hall values active collaboration with our community, and our commitment to accessibility is no different. We invite you to contact us with feedback and ideas.