Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Community Arts Space topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Sammamish arts groups ask city to open Building 120 as community performance space
Summary
Performing arts groups and cultural organizers told the City Council on Sept. 16 that Building 120 could be a permanent, flexible arts and community hub and urged the city to partner on access rather than request operating funds.
Spotlight Repertory Northwest and local cultural organizers urged the Sammamish City Council on Sept. 16 to permit community arts groups to use City-owned Building 120 as a home for theater, classes and other civic programming.
The request came during public comment from Frances Garcia Hoffman, founder and director of Spotlight Repertory Northwest. "Spotlight has no home," Garcia Hoffman said, recounting that the group's recent full-scale youth musical had to be staged in Issaquah because there is no suitable, affordable performance space in Sammamish.
The appeal was echoed by Judith Kaiser, a member of the community cultural collective C3, who said the 120 Building could host high-school gathering space, a thrift bookshop run by seniors, rotating artist displays and a relocated farmers market using an on-site commercial kitchen. "The 120 Building can become the heartbeat of our community," Kaiser said.
Garcia Hoffman told the council she had been informed "that no new uses will be added to Building 120 until next summer," and she asked the city for partnership to help Spotlight and other groups access the space sooner. She said the group is not requesting city funding but is seeking operational partnership and access to city-owned or community space so programming can be offered in Sammamish.
Councilors did not take immediate action during the meeting; the requests were made during the public-comment period and will need follow-up by staff and council as part of space-planning and the city's building-use process.
The public comments noted existing community support: Garcia Hoffman thanked Sammamish Hills Lutheran Church for prior cooperation and emphasized that local performers and production teams delivered the group's recent program despite lacking a Sammamish venue. Kaiser said that opening the building, even gradually, would allow near-term uses without large capital investment.
Members of the public and council may expect staff to include these requests in upcoming facility planning discussions and any Building 120 use schedules or community-space evaluations.
