Save Our Studio

A letter from our Executive Director:

September 18, 2019

To our beloved community:

Velocity has been serving and moving with Seattle since 1996. Whether you were with us from our early days in Oddfellows Hall, or someone who just happened to discover us this month, or a Seattle resident who just loves to support local dance artists: you are all an integral part of our journey and the reason why we made it this far. You are the reason we are here and why we do what we do.

A lot has changed since 1996. We weathered our abrupt move from Oddfellows; a couple of recessions; and a rapidly growing Seattle. Through this, we have managed to stay in our well-used space on 1621 12th Avenue, continue to grant hundreds of hours of creative residency space per year; welcome and steward the incoming graduates of dance programs all over the country; and send off to larger and more national stages our talented artists whose work we incubated here.

But now, we are facing fresh challenges which will impact our services to the community. We are facing rising rents; the increasing costs of operating in Seattle; and supporting in different ways the dance artists who are navigating this difficult economic landscape. We need to face this challenge by looking ahead and building enormous financial capacity to support our community’s needs in years to come.

Now is the time for you to give us critical support in this leg of our journey. We have a three-year plan to make it financially possible for Velocity to continue programs that serve and move with the needs of our community. The first stage of the plan begins, with you, today: raising $120,000 by December 31st to help us stay in our studios and give us the time and space to plant deep, grow steadily, and continue to give back to the community.

I hope that you can help us reach this first goal which will help us to develop our vision for the future. Whether you have the capacity to give, to get others to give, or to tell 20 people what Velocity’s studios mean to you, I am confident that, with all of your contributions, we can start 2020 off strong.

If you believe in the work Velocity has done in the past 20 years and want it to continue – a physical space for us to convene and connect, dance education for all, creating new work, training, growing, and learning from each other – support us now.

Warmly and with gratitude,

Catherine.

Catherine Nueva España, Executive Director, Velocity Dance Center.