Centrum has good news to share, having returned to its pre-pandemic levels of participation and attendance, just in time to be profiled on the PBS “News Hour” program.

“With five weeks remaining in our summer season, we’ve reached 95% of our record-setting year in 2019,” Centrum Board President Renee Klein announced, in a public statement released July 5. “It feels so good to welcome guests back to Fort Worden in such large numbers, and to experience the vitality and conviviality on the campus again at this scale.”

Robert Birman, executive director of Centrum, added that ticket sales for the Port Townsend arts nonprofit are on pace to meet or exceed their 2019 levels, having already reached 98% of Centrum’s 2019 sales mark as of July 2.

“This is not counting ouar new benefit concert and gala event on Aug. 12 with Rhiannon Giddens, which has additionally earned more than $70,000 in ticket sales to date, to help support Centrum,” Birman said. “The benefit event is a new approach, begun last year with special guest Diana Krall, to help Centrum mark its 50th anniversary and raise money for scholarship funds.”

According to Birman, in “a typical year,” Centrum serves artists from 17 countries, “most” U.S. states and 77% of the counties in Washington.

The start of July also saw Centrum receive broader national attention, as a PBS “News Hour” team visited the Centrum campus July 1-2, which just so happened to coincide with the opening days of this year’s “Fiddle Tunes” program, from July 1-8.

Birman emphasized that the timing of the “News Hour” visit was not planned, even though “Fiddle Tunes” is “one of the biggest weeks of the year” for Centrum, since it draws close to 600 attendees over the course of its eight-day run.

“Plus, we benefited from beautiful weather during those days, but really, Centrum would have been well-represented regardless of when they’d chosen to show up,” Birman said.

The “News Hour” visit happened because Birman contacted the program, after seeing an artist in Olympia profiled by its “Canvas” arts and culture series in January.

“I thought, ‘How often have I seen Washington state artists profiled on this program before?’” Birman said. “So I Googled the reporter, and found out they’re based out of Portland, Oregon.”

Birman pitched the reporter on the idea of Centrum, in Fort Worden State Park, as “a place of war that’s been transformed into a place of art and learning,” having served the latter functions almost as long as its original stint as a U.S. Army base, from 1902-1953.

“I pointed out that not just Centrum, but all our creative partners here have utilized combinations of public and private funds to rehabilitate this campus over the years,” Birman said. “So, the reporter pitched that story to the News Hour’s headquarters in turn, and it got greenlit.”

Birman noted that the “News Hour” team arrived on Monday, July 1, and filmed until at least 11 p.m. that night, before filming again from approximately 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesday, June 2.

“I couldn’t even tell you how many different folks they talked to and interviewed,” said Birman, who sat down for a filmed interview segment of his own during the “News Hour” team’s visit. “We weren’t going to prescribe the terms of their filming on our campus.”

Given the amount of activity on the Centrum campus during their visit, Birman feels confident that the “News Hour” team had no shortage of interesting things to film, and he hopes that the positive stories of not only Centrum, but other Fort Worden tenants, from KPTZ 91.9 FM to the various schools on site, will make it onto the PBS broadcast.

“I would hope that they saw how we’re bringing in tourism dollars and diversity, to the benefit of the broader community,,” Birman said.

Birman cited Nielsen ratings showing that the PBS “News Hour” is viewed by 2.7 million homes each night, and 8 million households per week, as he predicted the episode would likely air between late July and early August, although he assured the public that Centrum would post updates for the exact broadcast date on its centrum.org website.

“It all depends on what other national news breaks in the meantime, but we’ll be informed ahead of time, so we can get the word out to everyone else,” Birman said. “And of course, even if you miss the episode that night, the segment should be posted on its YouTube account afterward, where it’ll live on the internet forever.