[Update!] The Arts Hub: Has Our Arts Scene Finally Found a Home? -📍 Vancouver, WA

We've got an update! Adriana sits down with Christine Richardson to hear all about what's happening at the end of 2025 and what we can look forward to in 2026.

The first half of this episode is a rebroadcast of our interview from May, 2025. Listen to the end for a sneak peek at what's to come.

🗺️ Visit them at www.theartscentered.org | Instagram | Facebook  

👀 For pictures, visit the episode page.  

🎉 This episode also celebrates the City of Vancouver City Council. Bravo to them for passing the Cultural Access Tax.

🎶 Music credits: “The Flower Duet” from Lakmé - Soprano Lindsey Lefler, Mezzo-Soprano Sadie Gregg, Pianist Hannah Early with Opera on Tap.

⭐️  Get your tickets to Chamber Music Northwest's summer festival! Use code IITPV for $10 off.

Transcript

[00:00:00] Adriana: An old library might not seem like the ideal place to spend your Friday night, but if you've ever driven down Mill Plain and peeped the old library building, you might have noticed something curious. What was once a bunch of cubicles is now a buzzing hub for arts and culture. Today we're exploring a space that everyone's talking about, and we're doing it with the best guide possible.

For years, Vancouver native costume designer, educator and arts advocate, Christine Richardson, has been offering resources and support to dozens of individual artists and cultural organizations through her nonprofit, The Arts Centered. And now she's deepening our community's connection to all the art forms, and opening doors, both literally and figuratively, as the facilitator of the Vancouver Arts Hub, she's unlocked the doors for us. Let's take a look.

Welcome to I’m Into This Place. Your deep dive into the local arts, culture, and heritage of Clark County. From fabulous new restaurants to quirky art installations to the historical sites you never even knew to look for, we’re inviting you along. Whether you're a Clark County connoisseur or just starting to get to know her, get ready to fall head over heels for this place we call home. I'm your host, Adriana Baer, and I'm into this place. Let's go.

Hello Christine, welcome. Before I jump into our conversation today, I wanna take a quick lexicon moment that I think will help our listeners. So we are currently sitting in a building that is known as the Arts Hub.

It was formerly the Downtown Public Library, and it's still owned by the city of Vancouver, who is committed to transforming the building [00:02:00] into a center for arts and culture. And while we wait for them to get permits and budgets together to reduce some key physical infrastructure like a new roof, they've partnered with you, Christine, to facilitate the use of this 50,000 square foot space.

Now, your organization, your nonprofit, is called The Arts Centered. So this is the company you founded a number of years ago to help individual artists and creative organizations through resources, connections, backend fundraising support, community gatherings and more. And as the executive director of The Arts Centered one of your projects is the facilitation of the Arts Hub.

Whew. Okay, so now that we've got that lingo straight, let's go way, way back. So in the 1970s, little Christine Richardson was just a kiddo interested in making some art. And growing up in [00:03:00] Vancouver, your mom took you to a Parks and Rec crafting event at Marshall Center. What you've made there is super sweet, and audience, you can see a picture of it on the episode webpage. But what I love about this story is actually what came next. So, Christine, tell us why this moment as a kid has so much meaning for you now. 

[00:03:25] Christine: Well, I think when I look back at my creative self, when I look back at little Christine and how my mom supported my creative nature and my intuitive thinking, and I can still see the room at the Marshall Center. And this was a craft workshop, and it was unguided. It was just stuff, recycled stuff, you know, like scraps of things and you could just make whatever you wanted. But it was a holiday. It was during Christmas time, so I don't remember why I decided that I wanted to make a nativity scene.[00:04:00] 

And so I made, I made a little merry a little, um, closed pin baby Jesus in her arms, and, uh, Joseph and one wise man, you know, really? Wise person. What I love about that, and my mom still has it right, brings out every Christmas, but when I look at it, I really reflect on my creativity as a child and how special and how integral that kind of gift my mom gave me of the freedom to just sort of explore and, and be curious about what something looks like. And especially since I became a costume designer, like, I've gone back and looked at those little figures. And so, I think A), the fact that, you know, I moved away from Vancouver and I'm moving back here, I sort of reminisce a lot about things that were important to me. The beginnings of my career, go all the way back, you know, my career but it also, my creative self go all the way back to those moments, like the craft, that [00:05:00] little craft party. 'cause it was really simple, but it was fostering my curiosity and fostering my, you know, like, try something, just try it. 

[00:05:07] Adriana: And what's also so important about that story is access. And that is led through all of your careers.

[00:05:13] Christine: Absolutely. 

[00:05:14] Adriana: You wouldn't have had that opportunity if somebody hadn't put out a bunch of stuff and said, come make things. 

[00:05:19] Christine: Absolutely. It's simple. It was super simple, but transformative for kids and having that access to, I mean, adults and kids, but it's all, it is all about access, which is a big part of what encouraged me to start the nonprofit was about equity and cultural access.

[00:05:36] Adriana: Yeah, so, so tell me a little bit more about that. You grew up here, but like so many creative artists in the nineties and two thousands. Mm-hmm. You moved away, right? Mm-hmm. To develop your professional career, you had a phenomenal career and still do 

[00:05:50] Christine: mm-hmm. 

[00:05:50] Adriana: In the professional world. Building costumes. And then you moved back, right? And when you moved back, why did The Arts Centered your [00:06:00] nonprofit, seem like the right next thing for you to do? 

[00:06:04] Christine: So I, when I moved back in 2015, I had left in 98, 1998. And when I moved back in 2015, that was four years post my final chemotherapy appointment for breast cancer.

And, you know, post anything like that, you, you're not the same person you were before that. I was forever changed by that diagnosis and that process. Those, you know, treatments and surgeries. In deciding to move back, it was really about what does Christine want? 

[00:06:34] Adriana: Yeah. 

[00:06:34] Christine: You know, all of the moves that I made from Portland to Baltimore, to Cleveland, to Minneapolis, that was all for my job. That was all for my career, and I was tremendous. It was fantastic. But this final move to come back home was really about me and what I wanted to be doing. And moving back here, I wasn't sure yet, but I knew that it was about serving the community. I knew that it was about access. My previous job before I moved here [00:07:00] was, you know, a million dollar budget with a staff of 25 and year-round theater with three theaters in one building.

Like, I'm a project manager, I'm a people person, I'm a diplomat. I'm a negotiator, I'm a creative problem solver. And so all of that stuff is at the heart of what it is that I do. The the career that I chose. I wanted to use all those skills for the betterment of myself really also, but the community, I wanted this for Vancouver.

Living in Minneapolis was a huge eye-opener to know what it looks like for a community, a metropolitan area, a state, to really have a multi-generational relationship with the arts and what it looks like when a community values it in real ways financially. When it comes to voting for some measure or bond or some tax.

So I wanted to bring that back. How can I, you know, not overnight, but how can I play a role in our community here in Vancouver, having a better understanding of the [00:08:00] value that our artistic community and cultural community brings. 

[00:08:05] Adriana: So you like many creative artists, you went out into the world, you had a professional career, and then you moved back you had a vision and that vision became The Arts Centered. We've got artists who make art and we've got foundations who give grants. 

[00:08:24] Christine: Mm-hmm. 

[00:08:25] Adriana: The arts centered. My observation lives somewhere at the intersection 

[00:08:30] Christine: for sure. 

[00:08:30] Adriana: Of the makers and the supporters. You're both facilitating and providing spinal background, skeletal support to these artists and arts organizations.

[00:08:42] Christine: Mm-hmm. 

[00:08:42] Adriana: And you're also. Involved inside of helping those projects actually get made. 

[00:08:48] Christine: Mm-hmm. 

[00:08:49] Adriana: You know, which is really different from say, a foundation who is like, here is $10,000. Goodbye. Yeah. And or somebody who's like, every day I am in my studio painting. 

[00:08:59] Christine: Yeah. 

[00:08:59] Adriana: [00:09:00] You know, you're really. At the intersection of those things. Yeah. So what does a day in the life of The Art Centered look like? 

[00:09:08] Christine: At the center of what it is that we're doing is relationship building. You know what it is that The Art Centered can do for an organization or an artist? There isn't a menu dream. Dream big. What is it that you wanna do? We've got resources, we've got a lot of support.

Everybody's got a place in here. That is the beauty of it. Yeah. That's the beauty of our city. That's the beauty of our community. And people have very different art forms, different cultures. Everybody has a unique need. I want to really know. What is it? Like, what, what are your concerns? 

[00:09:44] Adriana: This is, uh, very interesting because there's such a push now in the philanthropy world to do more trust-based philanthropy, right?

Where we have a pot of money and the way we can best spend this money is to trust that the people doing the [00:10:00] work know how to do the work. Right? And so. As a trust-based philanthropist, my job would be to find an organization, do my due diligence. Are they healthy? Then we say, here's the money you do with it, what you see best. And you make the thing as you want to make the thing. 

[00:10:21] Christine: Yeah. 

[00:10:22] Adriana: One of the things that I observed when I first moved to Clark County was that there is so much going on here. I mean, just tons of individual artists, uh, visual artists. There's tons of dance groups. There's a lot happening here. 

[00:10:36] Christine: Mm-hmm. 

[00:10:37] Adriana: And one of the things that I became curious about is that often what I've noticed is that things have been siloed. There's this ceramics group and that ceramics group, and everybody's passionate and doing it for all the right reasons, but there may be not coming together in shared [00:11:00] space to collaborate, and this is not a rule, but 

[00:11:03] Christine: yeah, 

[00:11:03] Adriana: in a lot of cases. People are, are functioning on their own and a lot of times feeling alone. 

[00:11:11] Christine: Mm-hmm. 

[00:11:12] Adriana: That they're struggling to get audiences or attention or funding or whatever, and they're maybe not realizing that there's forty seven other people who are having the same experience. 

[00:11:22] Christine: Mm-hmm. 

[00:11:24] Adriana: What I feel that you are doing with The Arts Centered and then also with the Arts Hub, is you're actually creating literal physical space where all of those different groups can come together and feel in community. 

[00:11:38] Christine: Mm-hmm. 

[00:11:39] Adriana: And collaborate or simply support each other's work by showing up as an audience. When I was here, you know, I've been here for a number of first Fridays, but the last one I was at, you know, I happened to get to listen to four different poets. Here's some opera, buy some art, see a dance [00:12:00] performance and eat some cookies. And I was only here for 50 minutes, maybe an hour? 

[00:12:08] Christine: Mm-hmm. 

[00:12:09] Adriana: Right. And suddenly it's like, oh right. And all of these people are here. They only had to drive seven minutes to get to the building. 

[00:12:17] Christine: Amen. Mm-hmm. 

[00:12:18] Adriana: So let's talk about the building.

[00:12:19] Christine: Yeah. 

[00:12:20] Adriana: You, as the Art Centered and you as Christine are facilitating this big empty shell. 

[00:12:26] Christine: Yes. Beautiful big empty. 

[00:12:29] Adriana: Beautiful big empty shell that we're sitting in. 

[00:12:31] Christine: No more books, no more cubicles. 

[00:12:32] Adriana: No, no books, no cubicles. Yeah, just space. So just space. What is the city's vision and your vision? Gimme the monologue.

[00:12:41] Christine: In 2018, 2019, I was appointed a member of the Cultural and Heritage Commission. As a working artist, like, I thought it was important that artists were part of the conversation. So the Arts Hub project, the city has a plan for this building and as an artist, you just gotta get started sometimes. You can plan all you want, [00:13:00] but you just gotta like throw some clay on the plinth and just start molding it.

And so, my proposal to the parks rec and cultural services department who oversees this building was essentially, I wanna get in there and just start some stuff. Because people are practicing in their basements, people are practicing outside, like people are making art by themselves. Like this is just fine.

It's a 50,000 square foot building. It's in fine shape, other than it needs a new roof and it doesn't have sprinklers, so that limits occupancy. It's a fantastic space and I knew that it could serve the community, could serve arts and culture groups immediately now without all the bells and whistles, without all the remodel.

And so they saw that, they could see that they understood that, that as I said to them, this is an opportunity for proof of concept. So the idea that we could get in here and do some real fact finding, use the spaces, um, having all these conversations and really discovering in real time what is needed.

The city's commitment, the [00:14:00] City of Vancouver's commitment to this building and to this project. Me sitting here in this building is proof that it is a very real commitment. I understand. 'cause I, this is part of the reason I'm here, that there have been other projects that have come and gone. It's important for me to say this is different. This is very different. 

I am sitting here right now in this building with a key and hosting all of these groups, and that is because the city sees that as a value. This building is owned by the city. I am here with their support. And so the commitment is very real. There's so much fun to have here and to do it in community and to do with each other.

[00:14:37] Adriana: So the city has committed to this building being arts centered? 

[00:14:43] Christine: Mm-hmm. 

[00:14:43] Adriana: Not your, 

[00:14:44] Christine: not My Hub or Moses. Oh yes. 

[00:14:47] Adriana: The city has committed to this building, being an arts hub. 

[00:14:50] Christine: Yes. 

[00:14:51] Adriana: And part of your work in partnership with them is figuring out what does the community need, want, and what we can [00:15:00] sustain. So what are you seeing? What is most exciting to you going forward? 

[00:15:05] Christine: So I think the biggest thing, the thing that has gotten the most people excited is a black box space upstairs here. There are very few, if any, performance spaces, flexible performance spaces in Vancouver. 

[00:15:21] Adriana: Yeah. It would be full all the time. 

[00:15:23] Christine: I could program at 365.

Whether it was for, you know, local recitals or if it was for the poets or even, you know, the visual arts, A black box. One of the biggest amazing things about a black box is its flexibility, is the idea that it could be a really cool visual arts. Exhibit inside the black box. It could be a combination of visual and performing arts.

Like it's not just because it's a, let's say, quote, theater space that doesn't make it just for a theater. It is an exhibit space that is the thing that most people are the most excited about. And as a theater maker, and as a theater watcher, I love a black box because every time you go to [00:16:00] see what's happening there with another company, another group, they've reconfigured it in a completely different way, and it's just, It's just exciting. 

[00:16:08] Adriana: So, Christine, we're here at the end of 2025. Tell me how it's gone programming wise in this building this year. 

[00:16:17] Christine: So this year it's been super exciting. We have, uh, continuing users from last year. We have a bunch of new users. We're here pretty much six to seven days a week.

We have offered workshops and classes that are open to the public as well as providing space for arts and culture groups to do their individual, um, arts and culture practice. 

[00:16:38] Adriana: going into 2026. Will you be expanding any of the programming here in the building? 

[00:16:46] Christine: We are, uh, but we are currently embarking upon a proof of concept for studio space, for individuals, um, for groups.

We want to provide space for [00:17:00] artists to come and create together or create on their own, to take their art out of their kitchens or off the top of their dryers in the laundry room. And so we're, we're doing that right now. The Northeast Lower Gallery is the space that we would like to turn into a communal arts making space.

It's got some beautiful windows. It's got a lot of outlets. It's that it's got, um, waters close by, the things that, you know, most people need, um, for what they're doing. So it feels like the key space to trying this out.  

[00:17:33] Adriana: A communal visual art studio space. Sounds really exciting. Yeah. As in a really great addition to this building.

So speaking of space and the design of this building, the city recently selected a firm that went through a request for proposal process, and now they have a partner to look at [00:18:00] the property as a whole. So we're looking at the outside of the building, the inside of the building, even the operational model on how the building is used and how the city's involvement happens.

That's really exciting that we've taken that step. Yeah. So that is definitely something to celebrate heading into 2026. And one of the, the questions that I know many people have had for you specifically is, okay, in order to increase the capacity in this building from a fire code perspective, very basic 101. We have to renovate the roof and get some asbestos out of here. So that will happen, we think, when?

[00:18:48] Christine: The plan is for next summer. 

[00:18:50] Adriana: Awesome. So 2026 Summer. This summer 26. Coming up. Yeah, Okay. And during that time, I mean, who knows how long these construction things will take? [00:19:00] But during that time, is there a plan to be able to continue providing space during those renovations, or will the artists be looking for a new home? 

[00:19:11] Christine: Currently the hope is that the sort of three main elements to this building that are the priorities currently is, uh, resurfacing the roof. When they resurface the roof, they're gonna need to put some drains in, which means they're gonna have to go up through the ceiling on the first floor, which means they'll go through the asbestos, which means the asbestos should come down then and the sprinklers should go in.

So, in some ways it's great. 'cause really the major things that need to happen is one big project, there's a portion of that project that we would be able to stay in the building for. The resurfacing of the roof is, um, something that nobody needs to leave for. Asbestos on the other hand. . .

[00:19:52] Adriana: yeah, we gotta get outta here for that.

[00:19:54] Christine: We gotta get outta here for that. But the estimates of how long that asbestos [00:20:00] work uh, would take is somewhere around about six weeks, six to eight weeks for the asbestos and the sprinklers. The art centered commitment is that we will find a space for all of the, uh, the activities. We don't think anybody needs to be the, bear the burden of, of what's happening to the building. And we don't want anybody to lose momentum as we don't wanna lose momentum, um, in this community building, in these relationship buildings. So we've been talking to multiple buildings, multiple, um, entities who do have space. So it could be. It could be several buildings, but it's also a fantastic opportunity for these other entities, buildings, organizations, to try a little something out like this has let us bring this programming into your space so that you can see if this is something you wanna do for your own. 

[00:20:47] Adriana: Yeah, absolutely. And we know there are so many spaces and rooms and venues in Clark County that are. Only used for a portion of the day. So to be able to have [00:21:00] more organizations, more buildings, more businesses, experiment with—what is it like to open your space up at different times of the day? That could really start a little mini movement.

Absolutely. Which is very exciting. Cool. 

[00:21:14] Christine: Proof of concept for them as well as us like—

[00:21:17] Adriana: Yeah. 

[00:21:17] Christine: Plug and play. 

[00:21:18] Adriana: We will continue to do updates on what's happening here at the Arts Hub and what's happening with all of this incredible space that we get to play with. So Christine, as you know, at the end of every episode, I generally ask for folks to shout out somebody, or a group of people in our community doing great work for arts, culture and heritage.

So that's my question to you while you think about that. I'll just give a shout out for the I'm into This Place newsletter. If you're listening to this and you're not already getting our weekly newsletter, please click the link in the show notes to sign up or just go to our [00:22:00] website and you'll find a link right there at the top.

Our weekly newsletter is written by me and I share even more behind the scenes photos and videos about our artists and the organizations doing great work in our community. I also give a curated list of the events of the week, so signing up for a newsletter is one of the best ways you can support us in continuing this free access to arts, culture, and heritage coverage.

All right, Christine, are you ready? Who do you wanna shout out today? 

[00:22:30] Christine: I think I wanna shout out our current city council. Our current city council passed the cultural access funding tax, which is gonna be a game changer for arts culture, uh, heritage and science in Vancouver, the fact that they stepped up the fact that they said yes um, for the next seven years, uh, these ourselves and other entities here in Vancouver are gonna have access to real funding to be able to grow, um, the creative [00:23:00] economies, to be able to support the arts and culture. Science, heritage of the community, and it was a bold choice. It really tells us that they are invested, um, that they want this for our community.

[00:23:14] Adriana: We will have an episode coming up in the beginning of 2026 that really dives into that tax and the benefit that it's going to create for Vancouver. But just to say that is going to provide in the first year over $7 million that's going to be poured back into arts culture, heritage, and science in our community.

This is a pretty incredible thing and quite a game changer, so I'm really glad you called that out. Christine, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me today. I am a huge fan of you and everybody in this building, so thank you so much. 

I'm Into This Place is produced and hosted by me, Adriana Baer. Editing by Chris Martin [00:24:00] Studios.

Special thanks to Tess Thormodsgaard  for being my First Friday buddy and capturing all the great photos you can see on this episode's webpage on our website. Find the link in the show notes to that. The music you heard at the top of this episode was recorded at a first Friday event and is the wonderful singers from Opera on Tap, Lindsay Loeffler, Sadie Gregg, and pianist Hannah Early. This episode was recorded on site at the Arts Hub in the offices of the Arts Centered. Find out more about us and them at I'm into this place.com. See you out there.