Make.Shift is a nonprofit DIY art space.
Make.Shift empowers, supports, and creates opportunities for local artists and musicians in Whatcom & Skagit Counties. We prioritize marginalized and underrepresented creatives.
Make.Shift runs an all-ages art gallery and music venue, affordable art studios and band practice spaces, weekly workshops, and a low-power community radio station, KZAX 94.9 FM. We want to live in a world where art is essential, music is life, and weirdos are always welcome!
What’s Going on at Make.Shift?
Our Programs & Projects
Make.Shift is home to an all-ages music venue focused on booking local and regional independent bands and musicians.
Our venue is also available for rent for community events.
Make.Shift’s award-winning Art Gallery hosts monthly shows at our space at 306 Flora St. as well as online. Each exhibit opens on the First Friday of the month from 5-9pm. The gallery is also open Thurs-Sat from 1-6pm.
The gallery also hosts an annual holiday market in December called Make.Sale, which features local artists and vendors.
KZAX 94.9 LP FM is a freeform community radio station serving Bellingham and beyond. Listen on the dial or online!
KZAX broadcasts Bellingham bands, local content creators, and independent music from up and down the West Coast.
Make.Shift offers all-ages, all experience level workshops (almost) every Saturday. We offer annual passes to make workshops and studio time at Make.Shift as affordable as possible.
Our classroom/open art studio is also available for rent for individual use, group meetings, and community events (see more below).
Make.Shift is home to 12 affordable art studios and 6 band practice spaces, as well as a backlined practice space and open art studio that can be rented by the hour.
Make.Shift’s resident artists work in a variety of mediums: painting, textiles, woodworking, and more. Our resident musicians span many genres: folk, metal, noise, pop punk, and more. Spaces are rented on a month-to-month lease. Size, rates, and availability vary.
Make.Shift created Make.Shift TV in 2022 in order to make our programming more accessible and provide more opportunities for local artists and musicians. Episodes feature interviews, live music performances, community video submissions, visual art, and so much more!
In the Winter of 2021, Make.Shift entered into a collaboration with the Whatcom County Crisis Stabilization Center to curate murals for their new facility. The project features work from artists Jes Le Bon, Stevie Shao, and Glynn Rosenberg.
This project was made possible in part by the Whatcom County Health Department and the David Edward Fund of the Whatcom Community Foundation.
Land Acknowledgement
Make.Shift and KZAX acknowledge we are residing on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the Lummi People. The Lummi People are the original inhabitants of Washington's northernmost coast and southern British Columbia. They lived in villages throughout this territory and continue to have an ongoing relationship with these areas. Since Time Immemorial they have celebrated life on their land, water ways and on the traditional, ancestral and unceded lands of their People to perpetuate their way of life.
Educational Resources
We encourage you to learn more about the history of colonization in this region and the current experiences of our Indigenous neighbors with whom we share this land.
Children of the Setting Sun Productions
