3 Best Performing Arts Venues in Seattle, Washington

A community hub that celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2022, the Central District's Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute (LHPAI) offers a gathering place for Seattle's Black community—even as it's become more dispersed—through a variety of programming like classes, film screenings, readings, and theater. Housed in an elegant historic domed building, LHPAI also hosts the annual Seattle Black Film Festival in the spring.

The home of the Seattle Opera and the Pacific Northwest Ballet is an opulent, glass-enclosed structure reflecting the skies and the Space Needle nearby. The facility houses two auditoriums and a four-story main lobby area where several artworks are on display. Look for Sarah Sze's An Equal and Opposite Reaction, an enormous sculpture of found objects, hanging over the stairs at the north end of the Kreielsheimer Promenade.

Several of the Seattle Center's halls are used for theater, opera, dance, music, and performance art. Public radio station KEXP frequently hosts concerts in their home on the Seattle Center campus, and the center is also the site of many of Seattle's major cultural festivals.