Chuck Swanson announces retirement from Hancher Auditorium

True to his mantra of putting people first, Chuck Swanson, executive director of Hancher Auditorium since 2002, announced his retirement Tuesday first to his staff, then to Hancher partners and donors.

He expects to step aside this summer after embarking on a farewell trip to Broadway with donors in June, then working on a legacy video project capturing the voices of what the University of Iowa performing arts and education venue has meant to people over the years.

For Swanson, 68, who was paid $205,500 last fiscal year, Hancher has been his passion project, connecting people from national and international stardom to UI students, staff, the community, state and region. His voice broke as he spoke with The Gazette about the decision.

“This has been a recent discovery for myself,” he said, “because I’ve loved every ounce of what I’ve done. I love Hancher. I even love the sound, the name — every bitty piece of it I love.”

But in the wake of a pandemic that continues to threaten in-person performances, combined with the university’s 2020 decision to phase out $1.5 million in funding by 2024, he said it’s time to bring in “fresh eyes” to chart Hancher’s future as it moves to a self-sustaining model.

“I’ve always felt like my work, and the work that we’ve done at Hancher — we work to be transformative, to change lives,” he said. “And I’m afraid that we’re going to have to be working more towards a transactional approach.

“It can happen,” he said. “It certainly can happen. I have every faith that Hancher is going to be wonderful and be terrific, but it’s a different approach. I’m going on 37 years of the transformational way, and that I hold true to my heart.

“I just really have appreciated the journey in such a big way, and I just feel like I want the best for Hancher and the best for the university — I love this institution. And with our new situation in terms of our budget and the approach that we have to take, I feel like it’s going to take fresh eyes, open up some new doors and think about a different approach to the new budget, a different approach to how Hancher needs to operate.”

Swanson was a UI sophomore when the former Hancher Auditorium opened in 1972, and joined the staff as the business manager in 1985 before assuming the leadership role in 2002.

The historic 2008 floods inundated Hancher, as well as about 20 other UI buildings along the Iowa River. A rebuilt Hancher opened on higher ground by the river eight years later in 2016.

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