(Image: CHS)
The group is calling its new venue STG at Kerry Hall
By Domenic Strazzabosco
After acquiring Kerry Hall from Cornish College of the Arts last November, Seattle Theater Group — the nonprofit that manages The Paramount, The Moore, and The Neptune — has quickly made itself at home in the neighborhood.
Groups and organizations are already utilizing the historic space and a full slate of programming is expected to be active as STG at Kerry Hall fully ramps up by summer.
At a building tour on Wednesday, STG’s Director of Education & Community Engagement Marisol Sanchez Best described crying from excitement over what the building would provide. She noted arriving that morning and feeling the space alive with the sounds of dancers and musicians practicing.
At the event, rooms were occupied by artists including Grammy-winning musician and decades-long Cornish professor Jovino Santos Neto’s trio practicing, as well as Mark Haim directing a large group of dancers, and Bailadores de Bronce, a folklorico group and longtime STG partner, practicing in the hall.
Nate Dwyer, head of STG, described acquiring the space as presenting the “awesome privilege to steward the building for another generation.” He said Wednesday that though some work had to be done to update and maintain the space, STG was able to begin using it almost immediately. Within just a few weeks of acquiring the building, STG programs began operating out of the rooms, and by summer, they hope to have full programming available to the public.
CHS reported here on the $6 million acquisition that represented a final severing of ties between Cornish and its birth neighborhood. Since, Cornish announced it was being combined with 12th Ave’s Seattle University which will continue to operate the arts school’s South Lake Union presence.
Now on Capitol Hill, STG’s goal with the Kerry Hall expansion is to provide more consistently available theater, rehearsal, and training space for its programs and the Seattle arts community. In addition to STG’s programs now operating out of Kerry Hall, rooms will be available to rent at affordable rates — beginning at around $10 an hour — though specific details have yet to be released.
The three-story building has a roughly 190-seat theater and plenty of art and performance practice rooms. STG programs like AileyCamp, Dance for Parkinson’s Disease, ELEVATE, and the Broadway Inclusion Program will now have larger, more consistent spaces to operate in. STG also plans to start offering programs like painting classes that will be available to the public at large.
Kerry Hall, built in 1921, is in the Harvard-Belmont Landmark District as designated by the city. It’s across the street from the Daughters of the American Revolution Rainier Chapter House and near the Consulate of Mexico in Seattle, which moved into the former Harvard Exit Theater in 2018.
STG officials and Best are noting the lively neighborhood and community surrounding Kerry Hall. She described the organization’s close ties with the consulate across the street, whose workers have been stoping by out of excitement for the organization taking over the building. Best also noted the plethora of nearby restaurants and local businesses she hopes will benefit from STG moving into Kerry Hall.
“Who doesn’t want the arts around them? Who doesn’t want to have that good feeling of hearing music as you’re walking by on a summer day?” Best said. “It was just so nice to be in this space and just to feel like we are amongst neighborhood and community. My goal, honestly, is to walk around and be like, “Hi, neighbor!”
The organization is positive the space will thrive, though coordinating all ambitious slate of programs will require community support and roughly $10 million over the next three years in order to acquire resources like instruments and sound systems,.
“These buildings are so few and far between in many cities, especially ours. So, to lose this asset would have been a real tragedy. We’re just thrilled that we can keep it going,” Dwyer said.
STG at Kerry Hall is now open at 710 E Roy. Learn more at stgpresents.org.
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This is fantastic! Let’s just hope/encourage everyone to tend to the $$ for the long-term viability of this.
So great!
It’s kind of sad that Cornish exited the building, but this is a great re-purposing of an historic site!