ST. GEORGE – The Tuacahn Gift Gallery is open in the Promenade at Red Cliffs, offering a central location for the art center’s gift shop as well as a full-service box office.
The new gift shop opened Dec. 15 at 245 Red Cliffs Drive in St. George, manager Chris Graham said. It is a temporary location opened because the old gift shop at Tuacahn Center for the Arts in Ivins is being torn down to make way for a new, larger gift shop.
If the store does well, it may stay open indefinitely, Graham said. For now, the location is operating with a one-year lease and will be open through Christmas 2016.
“Actually, if enough people are happy to have us here, closer than Ivins,” Graham said, “by them coming into the store and supporting us and buying tickets here, then we may renew our (lease) contract.”
Having a box office closer to the center of the area’s population is an advantage that Graham said he believes people will like.
“Everyone that’s come in to buy tickets here has been so excited that they can just come in on a lunch hour or something,” Graham said, “and grab tickets and go.”
The new gift shop under construction at Tuacahn will be much larger, Graham said, and will have a child care center and possibly a cafe; the lower level will have dance studios and practice rooms for high school students.
“After years of wishing and dreaming, we’ve had donors that have helped us out and we’re going to be doing a wonderful, huge new gift gallery,” Graham said.
“It’s going to be quite a wonderful facility, quite a great addition to Tuacahn.”
The new gift shop at Tuacahn is part of a multi-million dollar expansion and upgrade project which is being funded by both private donors and part of the Recreation, Arts and Parks tax which passed in the 2014 general election.
Read more: County Commission commits $325,000 annually to Tuacahn
Read more: Tuacahn funding urgent; Ivins commits $200,000, asks other cities follow suit
After being in use for 20 years, the theater’s needs were getting critical, Ivins Mayor Chris Hart said in an earlier interview — the seating, parking lot, roofing and mechanical systems were wearing out, and sound and lighting systems needed to be updated with current technology.
Most people don’t realize that the nonprofit Tuacahn Center for the Arts is a major economic driver in Southern Utah, Graham said, bringing $85 million in economic benefits to Washington County – second only to Zion National Park.
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The new Tuacahn Gift Gallery at the Promenade at Red Cliffs offers both gifts and a full box office, St. George, Utah, Dec. 21, 2015 | Photo by Sheldon Demke, St. George News
The new Tuacahn Gift Gallery at the Promenade at Red Cliffs offers both gifts and a full box office, St. George, Utah, Dec. 21, 2015 | Photo by Sheldon Demke, St. George News
The new Tuacahn Gift Gallery at the Promenade at Red Cliffs offers both gifts and a full box office, St. George, Utah, Dec. 21, 2015 | Photo by Sheldon Demke, St. George News
The new Tuacahn Gift Gallery at the Promenade at Red Cliffs offers both gifts and a full box office, St. George, Utah, Dec. 21, 2015 | Photo by Sheldon Demke, St. George News
The new Tuacahn Gift Gallery at the Promenade at Red Cliffs offers both gifts and a full box office, St. George, Utah, Dec. 21, 2015 | Photo by Sheldon Demke, St. George News
The new Tuacahn Gift Gallery at the Promenade at Red Cliffs offers both gifts and a full box office, St. George, Utah, Dec. 21, 2015 | Photo by Sheldon Demke, St. George News
The new Tuacahn Gift Gallery at the Promenade at Red Cliffs offers both gifts and a full box office, St. George, Utah, Dec. 21, 2015 | Photo by Sheldon Demke, St. George News
Chris Graham, manager of the new Tuacahn Gift Gallery at the Promenade at Red Cliffs, points out one of the many specialty Christmas ornaments the store offers, St. George, Utah, Dec. 21, 2015 | Photo by Sheldon Demke, St. George News
The new Tuacahn Gift Gallery at the Promenade at Red Cliffs offers both gifts and a full box office, St. George, Utah, Dec. 21, 2015 | Photo by Sheldon Demke, St. George News
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So Tuacahn goes and begs for money from the cities around here and then builds themselves a nice gift shop…. maybe if they would lower their prices for tickets, concessions, and the items in their gift shops they could actually stay afloat. The local discount brings ticket prices down to where they should be in the first place. I love going to Tuacahn and I would go SO much more if I didn’t feel like I had to take a loan out for more than one or two tickets.