As the Asia Pacific Cultural Center (APCC) celebrates its 25th anniversary, the community has recognized the need for replacement of the current cultural center building. The current location of APCC has served tens of thousands of community members over the past decade within the former community center operated at South Park.
The current building has been modified many times over the years to accommodate various uses, but even with these updates the building doesn’t offer spaces designed to effectively support the programs and events they provide.
The aging infrastructure of the building provides other operating challenges as well. So the organization has been talking with the community over the course of several years about developing a new building designed to better support the non-profit’s cultural programs.
APCC is actively preparing plans in coordination with Metro Parks to replace the existing building with one providing more functional space for visitor experiences. The proposed plan is for construction of a new building within the existing building’s footprint.
Lua Pritchard, Executive Director, explains the vision:
“Upon completion, the space will have a bigger auditorium that will fit up to 500 people. It will have, for the first time, a full commercial kitchen and a demonstration kitchen to teach new classes for the Asia Pacific Culinary Program and Entrepreneurship Program. We will also have our own Asia Pacific library. In addition, we will create and implement the first Asia Pacific Night Market in the South Tacoma Way business district. We will have a full art gallery to display multiple artists’ visual art pieces throughout the year that are Asia Pacific related. All of these will be on top of so much we already do for the community.”
Everyone who is interested is encouraged to visit the website to make a donation, volunteer or become a member for the APCC.
For Additional Information
Asia Pacific Cultural Center
asiapacificculturalcenter.org