Revada Arts Center

● Client Work

Revada Arts Center Opening

The Revada Arts Center opened with four days of programming, from a ribbon cutting with city leaders to a family community day and a co-working day for performing artists in their cafe.

thrdspc produced the launch, bringing together the vision three innovative performing arts institutions across theater, opera and film.

Overview

The Revada Arts Center is 9,000 square feet of shared arts space in Southwest DC, with a black box theater, cinema, micro-proscenium, rehearsal studio, scene shop, and community space.

It is the permanent home of Theater Alliance, IN Series Opera, and 4EYE Film Center, three organizations that co-steward the building and one of the first performing arts collectives in the nation to adopt this model.

Opening the Doors to a New Model for the Arts

After raising $6M in one year, three organizations embarked on journey to create a shared space — moving into one building and creating a values based contract between them.

thrdspc transformed their opening into a single week that introduced them as one shared home, for audiences ranging from city leaders to neighborhood kids.

We anchored the week with four signature events, leaving room for each organization to slot in their own programming and launch events throughout.

The week opened outside the Revada Arts Center with remarks from city leaders, a countdown, and the reveal of the building’s new sign, followed by the ribbon cutting. Guests then moved into a grand reveal of the Black Box Theater for a panel on what it means to build shared space in DC’s arts community, moderated by Jonathan Fischer of The Atlantic, and finished with a toast in the Hub.
Community Day started with family programming: a Frozen singalong in the cinema, Opera on Tap, an acting class, coloring, a photobooth with a DJ. The afternoon Open House turned every room into a living museum. Guests watched set construction in the scene shop, browsed the costume shop, peeked into dressing rooms, saw lighting cues in the booth, and joined a Q&A with the Core Partners.
The Hub opened as a coworking space for performing artists and solidarity economy groups. Guests could plug in, use the self-tape room, and get free headshots. A discussion session, Collective Dreaming, invited the room to talk about arts-centered economic and community development and meet the people building it.
The week closed with a casual party for staff and board members from all three organizations, with pizza, massages, and a live illustrator. There was no program, just time to enjoy the space they had just opened, together.