Alexandria city staff is moving forward with plans to transition the Torpedo Factory Art Center to a new governance structure, with three organizations responding to a recently issued Request for Information (RFI).
Deputy City Manager Emily Baker provided this update to City Council during Tuesday’s legislative meeting, outlining progress on implementing recommendations from a stakeholder task force that worked on the issue in 2022 and 2023.
“Staff has been working on this issue about the future governance. There’s a lot of work that’s been done largely behind the scenes on implementing the guidance that we received from the council,” Baker said.
The Torpedo Factory governance transition stems from recommendations developed by a stakeholder task force that endorsed moving to an alternate management structure for the waterfront art center.
“We have done some market scans since then to get to help inform the parameters that we want to use to approach that governance transition,” Baker explained.
As part of the market scan, city staff examined comparable facilities and management approaches at similar institutions. The process included conducting focus groups to gather in-depth information beyond what the task force initially provided.
The city issued the RFI to identify entities with the experience and interest in possibly operating the art center in the future. The RFI, which closed on May 16, 2025, was not a formal proposal solicitation but rather a preliminary step to gauge market interest.
The RFI outlined six key requirements for any potential operator, including maintaining the facility to high standards, maximizing community-wide economic impact, working collaboratively with the city, promoting and marketing the art center, providing community-oriented cultural events, and supporting the facility’s artistic mission.
Baker reports that three organizations have submitted responses, which staff is currently reviewing.
“We are bringing forward to the council the extension of the leases of the current artists by one year,” Baker added, noting that these lease extensions will be before the Council for consideration at the upcoming Saturday public hearing.
The city expects to issue a formal solicitation in the fall to implement the next steps in the governance transition process. Baker indicated that staff will return to the Council before the end of 2025 with recommendations on how to move forward.
Vice Mayor Sarah Bagley expresses interest in the update, noting that many stakeholders have been looking for information on the process.
“I know there’s a lot of members of the artists community themselves and the supporters of the arts who are curious and particularly those stakeholders who participated in that process, I think have been looking for an update,” Bagley says.
Bagley also asked Baker to explain the rationale behind extending artist leases by one year and how that fits into the governance transition timeline.
Baker described what an ideal scenario might look like: “The dream scenario would be that as a result of the RFI, we identify some entity that’s already in this space with an arts facility who would be interested in coming here and doing the same thing that we’re looking for here.”
In that case, the city would issue a solicitation in the fall, giving the identified entity and others an opportunity to respond. Baker acknowledges this timeline is “very optimistic” but represents the fastest possible implementation.
“As it stands now, the earliest the next lease would come up is September of 2026. So we’ve created that amount of time for ourselves to try to have a new entity in place deciding what happens at that point,” Baker explained.
The Torpedo Factory Art Center has been a subject of ongoing discussions regarding its management structure and long-term sustainability. The current governance transition process aims to implement recommendations from the stakeholder task force to ensure the center’s viability and continued contribution to Alexandria’s arts community.
The city plans to continue reviewing the three RFI responses and develop a formal solicitation for potential governance entities in the fall, with final recommendations expected by the end of 2025.
