All of the city’s arts organizations spoke out against the plan and the arts funding was restored. The same year the Arts Tix booth opened, the city of San Diego floated a proposal to eliminate arts funding from its general budget. It was as much an information booth as it was about selling tickets.” Nobody wants to feel out of place when they go. People have questions on how to get there, where to park, what to wear. “It helped demystify the theater-going experience. “But the success of Arts Tix wasn’t just about selling tickets,” Ziter said. The booth was a smash hit from the start. After a three-year effort to secure funding and a location, Ziter opened the Arts Tix booth at Horton Plaza shopping center in 1989, offering member organizations’ unsold tickets for half price. His responsibilities involved filling empty seats, increasing community visibility and media coverage and boosting state and regional funding for the league’s initial 35 member institutions. On March 31, 1986, Ziter started his new job as the first paid employee of the San Diego Theater League (later renamed the San Diego Performing Arts League). “Bill brought me out in January from Chicago where it was 5 degrees, and it was a Santa Ana weekend here,” Ziter recalled of the offer he couldn’t refuse. In January 1986, Ziter and Purves met at a North American arts league convention and Purves asked Ziter to consider moving to San Diego to build and run a similar discount ticket booth. When Ziter graduated from Northwestern, the Shubert hired him as the theater’s house manager, overseeing productions of “The Last Whorehouse in Texas” and “Evita.” From there, he was hired to manage the League of Chicago Theatres’ discount ticket booth, Hot Tix. Instead, he started producing shows on campus and landed a marketing internship with the Shubert, a commercial theater in downtown Chicago. But when he enrolled at Northwestern University near Chicago to study theater and journalism, he realized he couldn’t compete with the talents of his fellow theater students. We are so fortunate he chose San Diego to build his legacy.” Behind the curtainĪs a teenager, Ziter sang in school choirs, performed in school plays and dreamed of a career onstage. That’s the thing about Alan, he has not only he been a great leader, he’s always been that leader who mentors other leaders. I consider him to be a friend and mentor. He’s the most quietly persuasive person I’ve ever met and he has taught me so much about how to operate in the arts community. “I feel fortunate to have graduated from the unofficial Alan Ziter School of Arts Leadership. ![]() My husband, Osborn, and I give Alan much credit for engaging us during that period,” Hurston said. “Alan Ziter is among a handful of administrative arts leaders who, during the’ 90s, began to elevate the trajectory of the San Diego arts community. “He believes strongly that we can accomplish far more by working together than by working alone, that success by one can foster the success of all, and I have watched this selfless ethos underpin all his efforts.”Īnd playwright Dea Hurston, who has worked in San Diego’s theater community for 32 years as an underwriter, arts commissioner, community engagement leader, gala planner and diversity advocate, credits Ziter with fueling her interest as an arts advocate. “Alan believes strongly in community,” Purves said. “I am confident he will continue to impact our community in positive ways, and I hope he enjoys his well-earned retirement.”īill Purves, who hired Ziter in 1986 to run the organization now known as the San Diego Performing Arts League, said the fact the League and Arts Tix are still going strong today “is a tribute to many people, but it’s in no small measure due to the foundation laid and fostered for almost 20 years by Alan. ![]() “It has been a great pleasure working with Alan through the years and I am so grateful for everything Alan has done to advance the arts at Liberty Station and in the greater San Diego community,” Johnson said. Lisa Johnson, president and CEO of NTC Foundation, said she’s sorry to see Ziter go.
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