An arts group that has set up shop wherever it could find space over more than a decade of performing musicals and giving private lessons has finally found a more permanent and spacious home. 

And, for the first time, Vibe Music and Performing Arts Center will be able to host its productions in a theater of its own.

The new space is important because the group has grown from having 25 to 50 families in lessons or theater productions 14 years ago to 500 to 700 families today.

It means a lot for Vibe to have all its operations in one place – and to have a home for the place that you call home is huge, said Megan Openshaw, Vibe’s executive director.

New building

Practices for the organization’s upcoming “The SpongeBob Musical: Youth Edition” already have been taking place in the new theater space at 2600 N. Columbia Center Blvd., Richland, next to Ted Brown Music.

Vibe most recently kept an office off the corner of Deschutes Avenue and Kellogg Street in Kennewick, which totaled about 1,600 square feet, but the lease was set to expire at the end of May. 

The new space has about 4,000 square feet of office space, plus a prized 13,000-square-foot theater.

There’s room for a dance studio as well as storage for props, sets and costumes that had been stored across seven storage units. 

Vibe signed a five-year lease for the space, with options to extend. 

Though Vibe only has about 12 staff, it has scores of volunteers. Parents of kids in the productions are asked to volunteer eight hours for a show that they’re in, anything from sewing costumes to manning fundraiser events.  

It was one of the parents who helped Vibe secure its new space, too. They knew the owners of Apollo Mechanical Contractors and mentioned that Vibe was looking for a building. The Ratchford family, who owns Apollo, owns the building under the name BWR Holdings LLLP.

Vibe hasn’t completely moved in just yet. 

Though the theater space and dance studio are open, the offices Vibe will use for private lessons are currently occupied by World Relief Tri-Cities.

Vibe is currently hosting its lessons one suite over, at 2630 N. Columbia Center Blvd., until World Relief moves out of its offices in September.

World Relief confirmed that it will be moving its offices a few minutes away.

To help cover the costs of the larger and more expensive space, Openshaw said that in January, prices for the 30-minute lessons will go up from $35 to $42. It will also save money because it no longer has to rent space elsewhere for practices, performances and storage.

Tickets to Vibe’s shows typically cost $25 for VIP seats, $18 for adults, $15 for students ages 6-17, seniors 55 and older and military, with kids 5 and under free. 

Vibe’s origins

Vibe’s roots date back to 2009, when Openshaw was working in the music department at Kamiakin High School in Kennewick. Her daughter and several other students at the school were hoping to start a show choir, and Openshaw helped launch it. 

In a few years, the show choir grew from seven students to the biggest of Kamiakin’s choirs, Openshaw said, leading her to expand it to all the city’s high schools.

In 2012, Vibe became a nonprofit and began offering music lessons and producing small plays.

Back then, Openshaw said her goal was “to be what we are now, and so it’s kind of cool that it’s come to fruition.”

The group has moved locations several times over the intervening years because it kept outgrowing their spaces, including a huge burst of growth after reopening following the Covid-19 pandemic, Openshaw said. 

Today, Vibe offers private voice lessons as well as instrumental lessons in piano, guitar, drums, violin, viola, clarinet and saxophone, plus acting lessons. Openshaw teaches lessons, too, focusing on special needs lessons, “making the arts accessible to everybody,” she said. 

The group also puts on about 10 productions each year, split between kids’ productions, ages 4-13; junior, ages 4-17; and all ages, 10 through adult or 13 through adult, depending on the production.

Theater space

The new theater space is a blank canvas for now. The large, carpeted room doesn’t have a stage or chairs. 

Openshaw said the organization is looking for donations of lumber or cash to build the stage and needs to raise money for chairs, too.

She’s confident that they’ll make it work, even if they must rent chairs for the first performance at the end of July. 

“I am very much a spiritual person that feels like God will provide what is needed, so I try really hard not to worry about things and take each day at a time,” she said. 

The real pressure was finding their current building. Now, “it’s time to hit the ground running” to find funding for the stage and other amenities, Openshaw said. 

Having the theater space will be a huge benefit to Vibe. It’s a constant struggle to find and secure locations for the group’s productions, Openshaw said. 

A church where Vibe put on shows stopped offering its stage for productions and renting school stages was often costly and involved frustrating schedule changes, she said.

With its own theater, Vibe will be able to stage productions for longer runs and on more weekends, giving performers more time on stage to develop their skills, build confidence and gain valuable experience.

Plus, the nonprofit hopes to rent the space out to other arts organizations. 

The Vibe family

Openshaw said that the Vibe community has been excited about the new space.

“The No. 1 thing that I hear about Vibe is, ‘It is my family,’” Openshaw said.

Already, volunteers have come out in full force for the initial move. 

Go to: vibempac.org.