Town Hall breaks down barriers to access
I was a fan and frequent attendee of Town Hall Seattle long before I was a staff member, but my first event after joining the team showed me the power of community access. I was at a talk by one of my favorite food writers and sitting next to a middle-aged man, his face and work boots still dusted by the day’s construction. The intimate seating encourages conversation, and I turned to him, “So what do you know about Bee Wilson?” He shrugged: “Absolutely nothing. But for $5, I can afford to learn something new.”
Stories like this are why, at Town Hall, most of our events are just $5 or free. We’re often asked about our model — why not charge more for higher profile names or better seats? The answer is simple: to maximize access and to encourage participation. We believe that economic capacity should never be a barrier to the exchange of ideas and cultural experiences.
Accessible tickets are a powerful tool for equity; they help reinforce the diversity seen on our stages, since guests from all backgrounds enter on the same terms and share pew-space with one another, (literally) rubbing elbows with different ideas and perspectives. And $5 tickets are also an invitation: to make time for the arts, to be inspired by a local scientist’s latest discovery, or to experience something entirely unfamiliar. Yes, this food history talk is for you — as well as this civic debate, concert, author reading, poetry slam, and robotics lecture… Cultural access is for all of us, and when we share it, our community grows broader, deeper, more connected, as we’re all given the chance to open ourselves to something new.
