TOC Arts Partners Assists Union Arts Center with the Recruitment of First Artistic Director
July 16, 2026 – Following an extensive national search, New York City-based TOC Arts Partners has assisted Union Arts Center in Seattle, WA, with the recruitment of Yuvika Tolani as the first permanent artistic director. The search was led by vice president of executive search, Cynthia Fuhrman.
“As a former resident of Seattle myself, I have enjoyed many performances of both ACT and Seattle Shakespeare over the years,” said Ms. Fuhrman. “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.”
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, Ms. Tolani’s background in theater production and civic engagement 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. “Which is: You are part of the world around you, and you must embrace that.”
Ms. Tolani began her professional theater career at American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, MA, after graduating from Yale, where she served as president of the university’s oldest undergraduate theater organization, the Yale Dramat.
Her brief stint in fundraising at ART ended when a producing job opened up at The Public, where she rose through the ranks to become the company’s director of producing, stewarding both classics and new works, and planning each season with artistic director Oskar Eustis and the rest of the senior artistic staff.
“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,’” Ms. 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.”
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“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.”
Proven Search Firm
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. The firm has worked 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 the firm’s strategy and executive search clients—including over 100 searches for executive and senior leaders.
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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.
Ms. Fuhrman has worked in arts administration for over 30 years, most recently as managing director at Portland Center Stage in Portland, OR, where she is based. She has served in staff leadership positions encompassing responsibilities in marketing, public relations, fundraising, finance, human resources, strategic planning, arts advocacy, and community engagement at several of the country’s largest theater companies, including the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and Seattle Repertory Theatre.
Throughout her career Ms. Fuhrman has served as an advisor and consultant to numerous other arts producing and service organizations (ranging from the Portland Area Theater Alliance to the Americans for the Arts) and has held board positions at Theater Communications Group (TCG), the League of Resident Theatres (LORT), Oregon’s Cultural Advocacy Coalition, and the national Professional Non-Profit Theatre Coalition.
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Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief and Dale M. Zupsansky, Executive Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
