PRESS MENTIONS
As the brainchild of founders Sarah Hayes Harkins and Matthew Seneca, The Long Room has proved to be a welcome addition to the area’s entertainment ecosystem, remaining true to the area’s past as an essential artistic hub while feeling of a piece with the small business ethos managing to hang on in the face of the city’s continued late-capitalist expansion and aggressive beigeification. –Queen City Nerve
“As the brainchild of founders Sarah Hayes Harkins and Matthew Seneca, The Long Room has proved to be a welcome addition to the area’s entertainment ecosystem, remaining true to the area’s past as an essential artistic hub.”
“Hear an interview with the folks organizing Una Noche Entre Suenos, an afternoon of Tango music and dance coming to Charlotte.”
“Both [Seneca and Harkins] come from performing arts backgrounds… and they’ve found a surprising overlap between the discipline of the stage and the demands of running a business. From building a tango community to learning the ins and outs of event planning, they’re charting their own path in Charlotte’s growing cultural scene.”
Watch The Long Room’s Matthew Seneca and Sarah Hayes Harkins teach QC Life Co-Host Jana Angel a thing or two about Tango, while inviting all to Tango Wednesdays at The Long Room!
“At the corner of Hawthorne and Central avenues, new(ish) performance and event venue The Long Room is launching a curated monthly music series, TLR Presents, opening the space up to artists who might not otherwise be able to afford to present their work there.”
“The Long Room’s new performance-focused venue at Central and Hawthorne avenues serves as an event space… filling two neglected niches in the Plaza-Belmont sector: affordable event space and a potential artistic home for the artists and audiences who are more comfortable in the less stuffy environs outside of the I-277 loop.”
“Harkins and Seneca are impressive for their creative chops, but what really makes this feel like it might have legs is the fact that there is a business plan in place that provides a fiscal foundation to the project while maintaining a certain level of agility and room for evolution.”
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“There’s a huge number of creatives and artists who are struggling to find space just to be themselves,” [Seneca] said. “There’s very few spaces that are affordable and accessible and available to artists who are not necessarily going to be selling out Panther stadium.”
“Seneca and Harkins were inspired during a trip to Buenos Aires to create a place in Charlotte that would allow arts to flourish, while fostering creativity. Seneca drew inspiration from his own artistic path for The Long Room, which has involved theater, music, dance and literature.”
