Call For Submissions

BroadwayPlaza
Commerce Street Transit Center, a multi-city transportation hub, is located next to one of the largest public performance and gathering spaces, Theater Square. TRANSFORM aims to collect community input and feedback to create a cultural and transportation plan for future development.

Creative Colloquy is partnering with Spaceworks Tacoma to present an impactful writing opportunity:

We want you to share your thoughts about the proposed revitalization project soon to undertake Tacoma’s Theater District called TRANSFORM.

TRANSFORM is a project by Pierce Transit, City of Tacoma and Broadway Center for The Performing Arts, aimed at revitalizing Tacoma’s Theater District.  The idea is to develop a plan to redesign the transportation and cultural hub framed by 9th and 11th Streets between Broadway and Pacific Avenue into a vibrant district at the core of our Downtown.

As residents of Tacoma, what are your feelings on this project? Do you believe there is value in re-energizing our Theater District or not? How and why?

Creative non-fiction, essays, and poetry are all encouraged as mediums to voice your stance. Recommended word count is between 1000 and 3000 words. Poetic works need not reach the 1000 word count guideline.

Deadline: December 18, 2017

Full submissions guidelines can be viewed here: http://creativecolloquy.submittable.com/submit/100395/transform

All stories are accepted via blind submission and judged by a panel of readers based upon artistic merit and clarity of ideas. It is our hope to open a dialogue that explores both sides of the coin. If selected, you will be asked to perform your piece during the TRANSFORM community event in January, 2018. During the event Spaceworks will also share the guiding vision for the Theater District and a preliminary Public Realm Framework Plan, which introduces an array of potential projects and programs to support community and cultural life in the Theater District. Feedback from the community on these initial concepts will be incorporated into a refined plan. Date and venue to be determined.

  • Format all work using MS Word (doc or docx), 12pt., double spaced serif font (Times New Roman, Courier, Garamond).
  • Title only on the work.
  • Do not put your name or contact info on the work. Instead put your name, contact info and title of the work in the cover letter. This is so we can maintain a blind submission process.
  • Creative Colloquy accepts submissions from all writers, poets, and essayists throughout Western Washington with a special emphasis on work originating in the South Puget Sound. Please note your location in your cover letter.
Creative Colloquy Submissions -Transform

By submitting to Creative Colloquy, the author allows for a one-time publication on their web site. All rights to the work remain with the author. If a paper version will be printed, Creative Colloquy will select pieces from their archives and contact each writer individually for consent for the one-time reprint of the work in the new media.

More about the project: 

In 2016, the City of Tacoma, Broadway Center for the Performing Arts, and Pierce Transit received a prestigious Our Town grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. This grant invests in creative placemaking projects that contribute to the livability of communities who place the arts at their core.

The Project Partners intend to establish a vision for a more robust and active downtown and they see the Theater District as a core part of this vision. By engaging the Tacoma community, they want to work together on developing a “Theater District Culture and Transportation Plan” which will be used to guide further design work, public investment, and planned private development over the next decade.

Goals of the Project:

  • Utilize a variety of community engagement strategies to inform the planning and design concepts for the Theater District, with an emphasis on the Project Focus Area described above.
  • Highlight a variety of possible uses of the public space including opportunities for performances and community events.
  • Develop conceptual design and function plans, in coordination with the consultant team, for Commerce Street, the Commerce Street, and Theater Square

 

 

Theater Square is the largest outdoor performance and event space in the district and it is placed next to one of the major transportation hubs in Tacoma, the Commerce Street Transit Center. The waterfall staircase between those two areas, as well as sidewalks on 9th and 11th streets facilitate the connection between transportation and cultural activities that can take place there.

By focusing on transforming these three areas, the plan will create a magnet of activity with functional and attractive solutions to improve the service for the performance venues throughout the district as well as for the visitors and residents of the area.

Explore the project, participating partners and take the survey at: tacomatheaterdistrict.com

Creative Colloquy is a Spaceworks participant since 2017

learn more at: creativecolloquy.com

TRANSFORM Project Partners

 

TRANSFORM Project is generously funded by

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