For just five dollars anyone from ages 13 to 19 can get into a vast variety of art events around Seattle (and newly Los Angeles) with a free TeenTix account. From Bumbershoot to the Museum of Flight, TeenTix’s Pass Program gives many teens the opportunity to experience the arts at a discounted price. TeenTix is a non-profit organization founded by Seattle Center, they aim to have the youth be an active part of the arts as well as making it more accessible. “I think since COVID, art has been dying down a lot because it was so hard to get to performances… so we’ve had to raise prices on a lot of art things so that makes it more inaccessible,” Natalie Warren said. Warren is a senior at Franklin High School who has been using the TeenTix Pass Program for the past few years. A ticket to see the Seattle Opera is upwards of $30 and can even go up to $400, making events like this very exclusive. “As a teenager, I don’t have the funds to go to these kinds of [art events] a lot…Without TeenTix I definitely wouldn’t be going as often because they make it so affordable,” Warren said. As well as TeenTix’s Pass Program they also have the Newsroom, Arts Podcast and New Guard. All of these promote teen voices in predominantly adult-governed areas, especially in the arts. As Coco Allred, TeenTix Program Specialist explained, “Arts are a really critical part of education and something that’s being oftentimes cut in schools. And so I feel like it’s really vital… to provide opportunities for teenagers to engage with it.” When art programs are cut from schools it takes that accessibility away from many students whose only interaction with the arts is through their programs like theater and band. “[The arts] offers so much culture in our lives like we are introduced to so many different aspects in school like learning mathematics and science but there are so many other important things in our lives that I think we have to learn to become well-rounded individuals,” Warren said.
TeenTix is continuing to work towards higher accessibility, as Allred said, “You can make something low cost or free and that isn’t an answer for inaccessibility, that’s just a starting point.” So far TeenTix has helped sell 130,000 discounted tickets to teens to see the arts. “It’s so easy to make an account… it’s really great that they have events listed every single day, during all hours of the day. I would just urge everybody to use it,” Warren said.
