Stage Employees Union Endorses Center

The Performing Arts + Culture Center project has earned the formal endorsement of IATSE Local 28, the union representing Portland’s stagehands, technicians and production workers.

“Many of our members have built their careers around Portland’s stages,” said Rose Etta Venetucci, IATSE Local 28. “A purpose-built venue at PSU means more productions, more work for the people behind the curtain, more opportunity to grow the next generation of entertainment workers and more opportunity to serve the need of affordable spaces for the community we serve. IATSE Local 28 is proud to endorse this project.”

The Performing Arts + Culture Center is an investment in the future of the region’s entertainment workforce. The project will generate an estimated 2,000 construction jobs in the near term and approximately 400 permanent jobs once the facility opens, providing lasting opportunities for stagehands, technicians, and other skilled union professionals. Designed on a site large enough to meet modern operational and safety standards, the Center will improve backstage and load-in conditions, reduce workplace strain, and accommodate the larger productions and increased performance schedules that today’s touring shows require.

Equally important, the project is designed to protect existing jobs. By opening the new Performing Arts + Culture Center before reconstructing the Keller, the community can avoid a three- to five-year interruption in Broadway programming and preserve more than 300 permanent jobs that depend on a continuous performance schedule.

The Center also creates an opportunity for Portland State University to partner with IATSE and other labor organizations to develop a direct training pipeline for the next generation of backstage and technical workers.

Beyond the project itself, the Center is expected to catalyze approximately $1 billion in surrounding capital development, creating additional opportunities for union building trades.

As a public institution, Portland State University is subject to all state bonding and landowner policies that prioritize union labor, apprenticeships, workforce equity, and high-quality construction standards.