Union Arts Center Announces Yuvika Tolani as the First Permanent Artistic Director
TOC Arts Partners is pleased to announce that the Board of Directors of Union Arts Center in Seattle, Washington has appointed Yuvika Tolani as the first permanent Artistic Director following our extensive national search led by Vice President of Executive Search, Cynthia Fuhrman. Her tenure begins on Monday, May 4, 2026.
Union Arts Center is the new company formed by the merger of ACT and Seattle Shakespeare Company, joining two companies with a combined over 90 years of producing theatre in the Puget Sound area. They have combined operations in their home at the historic Eagles Building in downtown Seattle.
As mentioned in the recent Seattle Times feature, while artistic director jobs have, in recent generations, often been the purview of theater directors, Tolani’s background in theater production and civic engagement (she holds a master’s degree in city planning from MIT) rang an exciting bell for Union Arts Center.
“Her city planning experience gives her an outlook on theater that I think is what the future of theater has to be,” said John Bradshaw, managing director at Union Arts Center, in the company's release. “Which is: You are part of the world around you, and you must embrace that.”
“When I was moving to Seattle, I saw news of the merger, and said, ‘Oh, a contemporary theater is merging with a Shakespeare theater — this is the one I’m going to keep my eye on,’” Tolani said in the company’s release. “It’s a marriage that makes perfect sense to me, given where my artistic home has been in the past.”
“In talking to the staff here, the love of the still-thriving arts community and the commitment to keeping that ecosystem alive is incredible,” she said. “Your city’s artists are the people that that city entrusts to keep its narrative alive, and so investing in that artistic community is critical.”
“As a former resident of Seattle myself, I have enjoyed many performances of both ACT and Seattle Shakespeare over the years,” said Cynthia Fuhrman, VP Executive Search at TOC Arts Partners. “So it was a privilege to work with the board and staff of the newly combined companies to find their first Artistic Director. Yuvika’s unique expertise in both theatrical production and urban planning and engagement felt like actually finding a needle in the haystack. With the work ahead for this company, I feel confident that Yuvika’s artistic leadership will move them into the future in exciting ways.”
About Union Arts Center
In the spring of 2025, both the ACT Contemporary Theatre and the Seattle Shakespeare Company Boards of Trustees approved the historic merger of these two venerable Seattle theatre companies, with an effective date of July 1, 2025.
This landmark decision came after an extensive deliberation and planning process that included incorporating valuable input from staff, donors, community members, and working committees. Since July 1, much has been accomplished for the newly formed Union Arts Center, under the direction of Managing Director John Bradshaw (formerly Executive Director of Seattle Shakespeare) and Interim Artistic Director Elisabeth Farwell-Morland, and supported by the exceptional staff made up of team members from both companies.
About TOC Arts Partners
TOC Arts Partners (formerly Tom O’Connor Consulting Group) is a national strategy and executive search firm for arts and culture organizations. Our team of seasoned arts leaders brings decades of first-hand experience in organizational strategy, capital project transitions, and operational excellence for arts institutions. We’ve had the privilege of working alongside more than 150 arts and culture client partners in 25 states and across 11 unique genres, from stages to screens, museums to municipalities. These include both our strategy and executive search clients—including over 100 searches for executive and senior leaders.
Select clients have included Williamstown Theatre Festival, Pioneer Theatre (Salt Lake City), Marin Cultural Center, Ballet Hispánico, The Hult Center for the Performing Arts, The Metropolitan Opera, New York Theatre Workshop, The Moth, Segerstrom Center for the Arts, Dramatists Guild Foundation, and more.
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