Vision
The big idea.
Live music is in trouble, not because people have stopped loving it, but because the systems that support it are broken. Artists can't make a living wage. Venues can't cover their costs. Communities like Bainbridge Island have no central place to discover what's happening or who's playing. Everyone is working harder and getting less.
RBMC exists because we believe there is a better way forward. Not a tweak to the existing model, but a fundamentally different one. One that puts the artist first, holds promoters and venues accountable, brings the community into ownership, and builds spaces that are financially sustainable by design. We are starting small and thinking long. The 2026 season is the proof of concept. What comes after is the point.
The roadmap
Now — 2026
Proof of Concept. 6 intimate concerts on Bainbridge Island. Musicians we believe in: personal, curated, original. Music paired with art, food, writing, nature. Exploring multiple venues to find what feels right. Building audience trust and artist relationships from the ground up.
Club Membership. Membership is the deepest way to be part of RBMC. Where a ticket gets you into a show, membership gets you into the community, the people, the conversations, and the work of building something that lasts.
Membership details and pricing will be announced later this season, and founding members will always hold a special place in the RBMC story. If you want to be notified when membership opens, join our mailing list.
Next — 2027–28
Building the Ecosystem. Cross-venue collaboration and co-promotion with BI partners. A centralized events hub for the island. "Arts Monthly," a one-page print calendar, old-school. Tech-enabled ticketing that drives real accountability for promoters and venues.
Future — long term
A place of our own. A community-owned, multi-purpose venue: event space by night, makers space and retail by day, childcare on-site, food and beverage, built with sustainable practices. Owned and run by the community, for the community. A model exportable to similar towns.
the problems we’re solving.
Artists don't earn a livable wage.
The economics of live music have been broken for a long time. Ticket prices have not kept pace with the real cost of making music, and artists absorb that gap. At RBMC, fair compensation is not an aspiration. It is a requirement. We are committed to paying artists fairly, and we are committed to educating our audience about why that means ticket prices need to reflect the true value of what they're experiencing. That conversation starts with us.
Venues and promoters aren't held accountable.
Selling tickets is not a passive activity. Venues and promoters have a responsibility to actively drive attendance, communicate with audiences, and deliver on their commitments to artists. RBMC holds itself to that standard and expects the same from every partner we work with. An artist who shows up to a half-empty room because no one did the work is an artist who got let down. We don't let that happen.
There is no central hub for arts on Bainbridge Island.
Events are siloed. Venues don't coordinate. Audiences miss things they would have loved because no one connected the dots. RBMC wants to help fix that, not by owning the conversation, but by being a connector. We support cross-promotion with other venues and organizations, and we believe a rising tide lifts all boats. We are also exploring a simple, old-school solution: a one-page printed arts calendar, available around the island, that puts everything in one place. Think the Stranger, but Bainbridge.
Venues aren't financially viable.
Rising labor costs, rent, utilities, and shrinking margins from alcohol sales are squeezing the life out of small venues everywhere. The old single-purpose model, a room that exists only to host events, is increasingly hard to sustain. The answer is not to accept that. It's to build smarter. Multi-purpose spaces that activate during the day as well as the night. Buildings designed with the latest sustainable practices. Childcare available on-site. Food and beverage that serves the community, not just the show. Tech used intelligently to reduce overhead and improve the experience. These are not radical ideas. They are just ideas that haven't been applied here yet.
Built to be handed off.
RBMC is not built around one person. From the beginning, we are investing in the next generation of leaders who will carry the mission forward, grow into ownership, and eventually take the reins entirely. We call this the NextGen model. It means that everything we build, we build with succession in mind. The goal is an organization that outlasts its founder and keeps getting stronger.
A model for other communities.
Bainbridge Island is where we start. But the problems we are solving here are not unique to Bainbridge Island. They exist in every small community that cares about live music and local arts. If RBMC works here, and we believe it will, it becomes a model that can be taken elsewhere. A nonprofit franchise, accountable to artists, rooted in place, and replicable in communities that share our values. The aspiration is not empire. It is a blueprint that other communities can pick up and use.
why now?
The RBMC founder, Jackie Costigan, spent forty years building things for other people. She knows how to assemble a team, align goals, execute under pressure, and grow something from nothing. She is ready to do that for and with this community, especially now, when the need for spaces that bring people together, celebrate creativity, and affirm belonging feels more urgent than ever.
We are not waiting for someone else to build this. We are building it.