The Firehouse Performing Arts Center at 1314 Harris Avenue is planning to file for non-profit status in hopes of keeping the center open for the southern Bellingham community.
Converted from a mission-style firehouse built in the 1920s, the property was remodeled and reopened in 2004 thanks to investments in time and money from South Hill resident Bob Christman and his son Matt Christman.
“I’m an idea guy,” Matt Christman said. “I saw an ad for the space and approached the city with an idea [for the Firehouse Performing Arts Center].” They won the bid in 2002 and went to work remodeling the center to include two other businesses, the Firehouse Café and Theron Eirish Massage.
After owning and operating the center for the better part of the past six years, Christman says he wants to file for non-profit status and select a board to take over. Rather than selling the space to earn back the money he and his father invested, he said he wants to keep it around and feels the best way to preserve it is through becoming a non-profit.
Should the center become a non-profit, this means the people who currently rent out space to teach classes, hold performances or screen films will have another alternative outside of using a space downtown, a benefit for people who live in Fairhaven and the other neighborhoods in the south side of Bellingham.
An Oral History of the Firehouse Performing Arts Center
The Firehouse Performing Arts Center opened its doors in 2004 as a place where people could rent out space for a reasonable price. Christman said the space can be rented for $25 an hour without seating and $55 with the theater seating.
“I designed it with the mission to make a reasonable space to produce art in Bellingham,” he said. “The businesses are there to generate more money and to bring in the public.”
Along with the Firehouse Café and Theron Eirish Massage, the center also has a small studio that can be rented by artists and a park out back for the neighborhood to use.
One interesting thing about the center is the roof. During the remodel, Christman said he wanted to put in the tile roof the firehouse never had. At the same time, Miller Hall, on the Western Washington University campus, was removing the tile roof. He took the opportunity and was able to get 40 palettes of tiles to use for the Firehouse Performing Arts Center’s roof.
Perhaps the most fascinating thing about the center is the performance space itself. The theater seating for the space hangs from the ceiling and moves down and up as needed.
“I designed the theater seating mechanism myself,” Christman said. “I’m in the process of getting it patented right now.”
This helps make the transition quick if the schedule for the space is tight. This also adds to the overall feeling of the space.
Pam Kuntz has been using the center since 2004 for her dance classes and performances.
“It is the best dance space,” she said. “There is not a bad seat in the house. It’s aesthetically beautiful and the owners are kind and generous. The feeling they have created is amazing.”
Providing a Performance Space for a Reasonable Price
One of the things its patrons like best about the Firehouse Performing Arts Center is how affordable it is to rent the space compared to other spaces like the Mt. Baker Theater downtown.
“We want to provide reasonably priced access to not only local performances, but the occasional regional or national performance,” Christman said. “We want to help local artists by providing them a creative outlet.”
With the prices as low as they are, patrons see the strength of the center.
“Affordability is important, and the Christman’s have made it so anyone can use it,” Mark Kuntz, Pam Kuntz’ husband and a director of theatrical productions and occasional lighting designer, said. “It’s a super intimate space.”
So intimate, he related it to the bar in the late 1980s television show Cheers. “It feels a lot like family. You walk in and there are a lot of familiar faces.”
Kuntz appreciates that the space allows a community of artists in Fairhaven and the surrounding neighborhoods to just walk in and do whatever.
Becoming a Non-profit as a Form of Preservation
Christman hopes that all of his family’s hard work will remain behind when the center switches to a non-profit. He is still in the planning phase, hoping to either find a non-profit or create one himself to take over and transition away from becoming a business and keep the atmosphere more like a family.
“The [Firehouse Performing Arts Center] is currently operating in the black, covering all its costs and making money,” he said. “I think this is a good time to try and switch to a non-profit. We just want it to always be there for the community.”
Mark Kuntz sees things in a similar way.
“I think [Matt’s] strategy is to keep it from becoming like a business,” Kuntz said. “As a non-profit, it would be owned by the community. This would keep it from being purchased and turned into a restaurant or something.”
With any luck, Christman said he hopes to get the paperwork in and find a board to run the non-profit by the end of the year, ensuring that the only space for local artists to produce their work in the southern part of Bellingham remains available to them for many years to come.
