IN Series and 4EYE Film Center are joining Theater Alliance as the primary partners at a new multidisciplinary arts hub opening in early Fall 2026 in Southwest DC, the leadership of the three organizations have announced. While the hub will serve as the permanent home of the three organizations, it will also be a space for the broader arts and nonprofit community to showcase their work and thrive.
Located at 340 Maple Drive SW, the new 9,096 square foot arts space will include a 140-seat flexible black box theater, a 60-seat cinema and proscenium performance space, as well as a rehearsal hall, reception space, scene shop, artist co-working spaces, and a civic engagement center. The arts hub will include programming from each anchor organization, inclusive of educational, artistic, and community-focused initiatives. Together, these three diverse arts organizations will share space, vision, and resources as the partners create a new model of collaboration that strengthens sustainability, reduces barriers, and expands impact.
“With a lack of permanent, mid-sized cultural arts spaces in DC, we are stepping in and doing our part to contribute to DC’s already thriving arts scene,” said Shanara Gabrielle, Executive Artistic Director of Theater Alliance. “We see this model as a blueprint for sustaining and growing the arts in Washington, DC.”
Late last year, Theater Alliance, the primary leaseholder of the space, announced plans to transform the unfinished vacant location into a vibrant arts hub backed by a $4.5M capital campaign, Alliance for the Future, expanding the site beyond theater to include film, music, and other art forms.
Theater Alliance has for the last year been remarkably successful activating the vacant space as a temporary pop-up, producing its entire season, welcoming more than 5,000 patrons, and employing over 130 artists local to the DMV. For more than two decades, Theater Alliance has shaped Washington, DC’s cultural life through bold, justice-centered theater and deep community engagement. The company is known for producing socially conscious work that invites dialogue, reflection, and connection.
IN Series is a performing arts company that produces new and reimagined works of opera, theater, and music. The company’s work is surprising, innovative, intimate, immersive, and transformational. IN Series blends sources and styles from across history and the world to be both timeless and timely. Collaborating with artists both locally and globally, the IN Series team is community based and at home both in Washington, DC and Baltimore, MD. Under the artistic leadership of Timothy Nelson, the company has established itself as a hub for thought, debate and historical innovation. Ultimately, IN Series strives to make the performing arts an essential and integrated part of the global collective conversation.
“After more than 45 years of providing one-of-a-kind music and community-based work that engages with the DC community and lifts up the power of art to inspire conversation and transformation for local artists and audience, the new hub provides a permanent homebase, a place to dream further, connect deeper, and make better,” said Nelson, IN Series Artistic Director. “We at IN Series are thrilled by the possibilities opened for artistry, collaboration, neighboring, and growth that this new (ad)venture affords; and we are exceptionally proud that it is a new model for artistic partnership that can inform the arts-ecosystem at large.”
4EYE Film Center is a nonprofit arthouse cinema in Washington dedicated to nurturing creativity, connection, and community by showcasing a diversity of films and adjacent contextualizing programming. It was founded in 2025 by Emily Lenzner, an arts advocate and communications strategist, most recently for the Motion Picture Association, where she served as head of communications and public affairs. When it opens for the first time next fall as part of the arts hub, 4EYE will be a gathering place for all generations to watch and discuss movies, connect across differences and expand perspectives and understanding. 4EYE will also be the only publicly accessible movie theater in Southwest DC.
“I strongly believe in the power of the arts – in this case film – as a means toward shared experience, connection, and community,” said Lenzner, 4EYE’s Founder and Executive Director. “I’m looking forward to collaborating with Shanara and Timothy and the other arts leaders who join us in this collective effort to present consequential and impactful storytelling through our respective genres.”
“I’m excited that Ward 6 and the Southwest community will be home for this smart partnership, timed at a moment when federal politics have changed the local landscape for arts,” said DC Councilmember Charles Allen, Ward 6. “In this moment of great upheaval, there’s opportunity for our local arts and performance scene to grow and capture new audiences suddenly looking for where to take in their next performance.”
The development of the SW arts hub is a collaborative effort with Hoffman & Associates, Grupo7 Architecture, Pillar Development LLC, and Potomac Construction. Construction is set to begin next month with doors expected to open this fall. Thanks to visionary support from The Revada Foundation and other lead philanthropic foundations and individuals, the capital campaign is already more than 85% complete—positioning Alliance for the Future to deliver critically needed, mid-sized performance and community spaces for artists and audiences in Southwest DC.
ABOUT THEATER ALLIANCE
For over two decades, Theater Alliance has been a driving force for innovation, activation, and artistic excellence in Washington, DC’s cultural landscape. Renowned for producing socially conscious and thought-provoking work, the company creates theater that sparks dialogue, fosters community engagement. Theater Alliance keeps justice at the core of its operations, prioritizes joy, amplifies under-told stories, and explores innovative artistic endeavors. Through its robust civic engagement initiatives, the company underscores its belief that the arts are essential to building a thriving, equitable society. Theater Alliance’s impact is reflected in its 111 Helen Hayes Award nominations and 31 wins, and in its proud status as a Core Member of the National New Play Network. With a steadfast commitment to its mission, Theater Alliance continues to create transformative experiences where all artists and audiences feel seen, valued, and inspired.
ABOUT IN SERIES
IN Series is the standard-bearer for innovative opera theater in Washington DC. The company makes theater from music: transforming artists, audiences and community by disrupting expectations, nourishing empathy, stimulating insight and deepening the conversation. IN Series envisions a thriving global community in which opera is a fully integrated and essential part of collective conversation. In picturing the journey to this end, IN Series is a change-maker – a force that, with each groundbreaking production and outreach event, radically transforms perceptions of the “who”, “what”, “where”, and “why” of opera: who gets to make opera and for whom is it made; what is defined as an operatic experience; where operas take place; why we make opera; and why opera matters.
Founded by Carla Hübner in 1982 as a concert series of the former Mount Vernon College, then named, “The In Series,” became an independent nonprofit arts organization in 2000 and has been a resident company at Source Theater since 2008. Timothy Nelson assumed the artistic directorship in 2018, quickly establishing the newly rebranded “IN Series” as DC’s home for “Thought, debate, history, and innovation” in opera. The company hired its first Executive Director, David Mack, in 2025.
ABOUT 4EYE FILM CENTER
Founded in 2025 in Washington, DC by Executive Director Emily Lenzner, 4EYE Film Center is a nonprofit organization that supports arthouse cinema for community engagement and connection through film and arts presentation, education, and inspiration. It will be a gathering place for all generations to watch and discuss movies, connect across differences, broaden perspectives and understanding, and celebrate creativity.
SEE ALSO:
Theater Alliance to launch vibrant new arts hub in Southwest DC (news story, December 2, 2025)
