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GMG ThriveCast
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Goodman Management Group is committed to building communities where people thrive—professionally and personally. Through partnerships like GymFlo, GMG continues to invest in the growth and well-being of its team.
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GMG ThriveCast - Episode 004
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Episode 004: Restoring More Than a Building with Betsy Hart
📝 Episode Summary
In Episode 004 of ThriveCast, Aaron Goodman sits down with longtime friend and Executive Director Betsy Hart to share the remarkable story behind the The Robinson Theater Community Arts Center.
What began as an abandoned historic theater in Richmond's Church Hill neighborhood has become a thriving community hub that brings people together through arts, fitness, nutrition, and meaningful relationships. Betsy shares how a simple vision, strong partnerships, and a commitment to listening to the community transformed not just a building, but countless lives.
Aaron and Betsy also reflect on their lifelong friendship, the importance of servant leadership, and why lasting community impact starts by empowering others rather than arriving with all the answers.
Whether you're passionate about leadership, nonprofit work, community development, or simply making a difference where you live, this episode is filled with practical wisdom and inspiring stories about what happens when people invest in something bigger than themselves.
⏱️ Chapters
00:00 Welcome & A Lifelong Friendship
01:59 What Is the Robinson Theater Today?
03:16 The History of the Robinson Theater
06:37 How Betsy Became Executive Director
08:27 Why the Community Had to Shape the Vision
11:45 Building Trust Before Building Programs
13:07 Growing from One Person to a Mission-Driven Team
15:13 Passion Over Paycheck & Building Strong Partnerships
16:27 Creating Lasting Impact Through Arts, Fitness & Nutrition
💡 Key Takeaways
✔ Great leaders listen before they lead.
✔ Community transformation happens through relationships, not programs alone.
✔ Lasting impact comes from empowering people to take ownership.
✔ Passion for a mission attracts the right people at the right time.
✔ Restoring a building can become the catalyst for restoring an entire community.
🎙️ About Betsy Hart
Betsy Hart serves as the Executive Director of the The Robinson Theater Community Arts Center, where she has spent the past 17 years helping transform a historic neighborhood landmark into a vibrant gathering place for Richmond's East End. Through innovative programming, strategic partnerships, and a heart for serving others, Betsy has helped create an organization dedicated to inspiring, encouraging, and restoring healthy community life through the arts, wellness, and meaningful connection.
🤝 About The Robinson Theater
The The Robinson Theater Community Arts Center is a nonprofit community arts center located in Richmond's historic Church Hill neighborhood. Originally built in the 1930s as one of the area's first African American theaters, the Robinson has been thoughtfully restored into a community gathering place offering arts education, fitness and nutrition programs, community events, affordable venue rentals, and spaces where neighbors can connect and grow together.
❤️ Goodman Management Group's Partnership
At Goodman Management Group, investing in people and strengthening communities extends beyond the neighborhoods we manage.
For years, GMG has proudly partnered with the Robinson Theater through volunteer service, financial support, and leadership. Aaron Goodman serves on the Robinson Theater's Board of Directors, and GMG team members regularly volunteer their time to help support the organization's mission of building stronger communities throughout Richmond.
This partnership reflects GMG's belief that thriving communities are built through service, relationships, and long-term investment in people.
About GMG
Goodman Management Group builds communities where people thrive—professionally and personally.
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We are meeting today with Betsy Hart. She's the executive director for the Robinson Theater Community Arts Center in Richmond, Virginia, that's in the Churchill neighborhood of Richmond. And this organization has definitely grown almost 20 years old now from where it started. And you have been instrumental in its inception and also in the management and oversight of that since day one. And so I wanted to just chat with you a little bit today about this organization, your involvement, where it came from, where it has gone, and then kind of what your vision is for the future of what it'll look like. But before we do that, I think everybody should know that you and I have been friends for a very long time. I think we were five-ish. There's a great picture that I'm sure we'll put in here of us at a like a co-op event. Some sort of field trip, homeschool. I look thrilled in the photo. I know that. You look thrilled. I'm like, oh my gosh. I can't believe my mom made me do this. So, and being friends all through our youth and high school and then college. We went obviously different colleges, but um you met a really great guy who I spend a lot of my time with now and is my one of my best friends, Kip Hart. And um, that has just encouraged our friendship to keep going with kids and life. And uh maybe Kip is our glue. Kip is our that and then also, you know, you uh I don't know if you directly did it, but you indirectly helped introduce me to my wife also.
SPEAKER_01I'm I'm really glad you said that because I definitely am gonna take the credit for you being with your amazing, resting, beautiful wife. Oh otherwise it would never have happened.
SPEAKER_00Okay. That's probably true. Um but yeah, so um I would love to just hear a little bit about um what the Robinson is currently, and then just a brief snapshot, and then let's just go back to start from like day one when you showed up out here. What was what was it?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So what it is now is we are in the heart of North Church Hill in Richmond, Virginia, in the East End of Richmond, and we are here to inspire, encourage, restore healthy community life in the East End for our neighbors. We do that primarily through arts, fitness, and nutrition-based classes and programs, um, a lot of community events, gathering our neighbors together, and also affordable venue rentals for people to celebrate their milestone events like weddings and birthdays, other nonprofits doing fundraising events. Um, so we house a lot of different things. Uh East End Fellowship is a church that meets here on Sundays. So our big thing is to have something going on every day of the week, um, something that is life-giving, something that is just building and encouraging that community living together.
SPEAKER_00Cool. And talk a little bit about the the building, because I think the building is a been a landmark here for a long time and what what it looks like now.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So historically, the Robinson uh was the Robinson Theater. It was built in the 30s and it was named after Billbo Jengles Robinson, the tap dancer.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_01And uh it was an amazing place where it was the social hub of the community back in the day. So people would come and they would come for movies, they would come for live performances, singers, dancers, comedians. Uh they would all come and get all dressed up and come to the theater. Um, it was one of the first uh African American theaters in in the Richmond area and definitely in Churchill. Um, so it was it was this, yeah, this icon, this institute for people being able to come and find a space to gather together. So a lot of that is why we are what we are today. We wanted to bring that back to what that life was and kind of bring that life back to the community. Um it's for so from the 30s, it was kind of hustling, bustling. It was great up into the 50s being the movie theater. Um, it went through a couple of different iterations where it was a pool hall and a club, um, restaurants. Um, and then it basically just uh kind of deteriorated. And in the 80s it was shut down up until 2007. There's two families that uh kind of got pulled in uh a little bit. There's two families, their names are the Bennett's and the Thalers, and they are longtime friends of both of ours. Yeah. Um, so they saw this property as uh just kind of a faith walk for them, a little bit of um, this building is here in the middle of the city. This is what it used to be for the city, and it's not that anymore. Um, so they kind of got pulled into this uh story of could we bring this back to life? Um so they jumped into it, uh, maybe not knowing the full picture of what they're about to jump into.
SPEAKER_00Um because it had been vacant for 20, 25, 30 years. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So I mean, the building had nothing on the facade. There was it was just a blank face, there was no marquee, there's no ticket booth, no windows, boxes. It just it was a blank building, you know. We go through Richmond and there's just boarded up buildings. It was one like that. People would just pass every day without even realizing.
unknownRight.
SPEAKER_01So um, when they purchased it, they did a whole historical renovation of it. Uh, they took tons and tons of trash just out of the space. There was a tree that was growing through the roof, like it was in disrepair almost. Um, but they were able to bring it back to life. They did um, they were able to keep the foyer to its original state, that it has an R in the middle of it. Um, there's uh some area upstairs that was the um old projection booth, and they were able to keep some of that. So using some of the wood that was used up in another area for the stage, so really being able to keep the character and uh the art deco that's on the side of the building inside, all of that's original. So they were really able to kind of preserve and restore what was once there.
SPEAKER_00I think, you know, uh and me not knowing all that history, but when I turn on to Q Street, you can see the marquee from either end, and it just kind of I think I've described before, there's just this kind of beacon sitting in Churchill that I know has been very impactful uh to the community. So so let's talk about how you how did you become a part of the Robinson?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Um, so when the Bennett's and the Thalers were coming up with what are we gonna do with this building? We want to restore it. Um, what can we make of this? Um, they came up actually with the concept of making it a community art center. So um I was at the time a kid working at the Raider Richmond Chamber. A kid, I felt like 23. Um and it was fun there, but definitely it was just a part-time thing. So I was definitely looking for what is next. And um uh so Kip and I um were also looking to buy a house and just trying to figure out what is our next step. We'd only been married for a couple of years, so um, just seeing like what's next for us. Um so they actually brought this to me as hey, we want to run some sort of community center. Do you want to come, you want to go run it? And um, of course, so my background, um, and again, like was us growing up in the way that we did with doing missions trips and outreaches and service projects, um, doing a lot of different things in the inner city, um, of Richmond or New York or different cities that we would go to when we were kids and just um just kind of learn more about that area and serve that area. Um, I've always been kind of pulled and tugged um by wanting to help lower income neighborhoods. So I think that my heart's just been stirred uh ever since I was young to do that kind of work. Um I love, I love the city and I I know that, you know, for years just kind of building on all of these mission strips and like that just being my life, it was kind of a no-brainer. I was like, yes, I want to come and do this. It's grassroots, and we don't know exactly what this is, but we're gonna make something of it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, you know, I love to dance and I love to perform. And um, so we just kind of started putting these elements in. Um, since that's what it kind of used to be historically. Um, we started to ask the community, what is it that you want to see here? How can you shape what this looks like now? Um, like there was a concept at one point to see like, can we turn it back into a movie theater? And I was like, I don't think that's gonna work. That's not gonna be very uh sustainable um for the way that we're where we are now. So uh the community center was the concept. They kind of came to me and said, let's do this. And again, I love and trust and had great relationships with both of those families. So I said, sure. Yeah um so it was actually in 08 when that happened. Uh and the building was still working on, they were working on the restoration of it still. Um, there was not even a marquee on it yet. Um, I didn't know much of what's going on, um, but they just kind of pulled me in. And then Kipp, my wonderful husband, was like, hey, we we need to look into buying a house. Like, if you're gonna run a community center, we should probably live in the neighborhood.
SPEAKER_00God, what a smart guy.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I really he's kind of keeper. Um, so I was like, Yeah, absolutely. We're we're kind of both bought into this. Let's dive all in. Um, so being the uh very young, I don't know what will be young professionals barely.
SPEAKER_00Young professionals, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, that we were, uh, we didn't have any money. So we started looking into play affordable housing. Um, we ended up getting a better housing coalition house that was three blocks down from the Robinson. Um they basically at that time in 09, they were kind of helping people come into the neighborhood as a what was known at the time somewhat as a neighborhood in blue. Yeah, trying to get folks to come and help develop some of it. And so they we got some great money to come and get a house through Better Housing Coalition. Um, so that is kind of how we kind of got started and planted and rooted. This is before kids. We knew like, hey, we want to have a family, so let's take a year at a time. But I think this is gonna be like where we're gonna raise our kids.
SPEAKER_00So you already had you were already beginning to work at the Robinson before you ended up living in the in the neighborhood.
SPEAKER_01Yes. Okay, um, yeah. So we were we were in the museum district at the time I was working at from home to help figure out how to what to do with this place and even like how to fundraise for this potential and this dream. And um shoot, that's when we would do uh we did a three all three basketball tournament before we even started um to be able to get sponsors and people to kind of support this idea. Um, we did that over at U of R because my father-in-law had some great connections there as equipment manager. So um we just kind of started to to create this vision and um again having the neighborhood shape what it was was was a huge value.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_01Um, you know, I'm as you can tell, I'm a white woman and coming into a community that was predominantly black, um, definitely at the time, um, and has deep, deep, deep roots of history and has um black families living here. Like I definitely didn't want to come in and step on anybody's toes. I wanted to just be that conduit to helping to bring something, some life to this corner in this block. Um, so I needed the neighborhood to take take ownership of that.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_01Um so that's very important and that's it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, not coming in with your own plans and every I dotted and T crossed, you came in really wanted to make it purposeful and meaningful and let the community kind of dictate the growth of how that which obviously then they how many so I say 20 years, but it's just shy of 20 years, right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we um February of 26 was our 17th year anniversary.
SPEAKER_00And you have been here all 17 years, right?
SPEAKER_01Yes. Cool.
SPEAKER_00Um I obviously I think and I have not been involved with the Robinson since you know that long ago, and I'd say even my involvement is more like six to seven years ago when I really started to um, you know, work with you and your team down here and just be a part of volunteer efforts. Um other than then, I mean, just talking about you for a second too. Like what has been um you have some staff now, it's not just Betsy Hart here. What has that been like um over the past 17 years of building this vision and letting the community be involved in this vision? And now what is it like with a staff and all the programs that you run?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Um what's great about this whole whole thing that I just get to be a part of is I believe that God has placed the right people in the right place at the right time for this for the 17 years and is continuing to do that. Um starting with um James Wright. He is my like facility maintenance man that has been with me since before day one. He used to just work over here at the night and day corner store. And he would just sit on the corner and just be available for the owner for whatever she needed. And then I started to pull him in and he started helping me with setup and teardown and on cleaning and just kind of getting him in there and then I mean he's my dad's age, so he was just somebody that um started looking after me and just being very protective of like, okay, this this is a team, this is a partnership. Um, he was great because he like felt like he owned the place. Um and so he was great to just kind of start off. Um, and then over the years, I have had some amazing team members. Um I mean, I've had folks that have just done a little bit of part-time things here and there. I've had assistant um directors that have come in. Um I know that people have been placed uh just at the right time. I know right now, for the past eight years, almost nine, I've had Mikhail with me, and he is my operations director, but that man wears more hats than anybody around here, I think. So he's somebody that keeps everything going and flowing and working and looking great. He basically, when he came on, he just raised the level of quality of programming and the visuals and things that you do here has just been raised tremendously by his efforts and his passion, his um I I know that kind of brought him in, and um, he's somebody that was he just grabbed right onto the mission because he was somebody uh we talk about it how like uh we have a passion over paycheck. So he was somebody that really bought into the passion of this before he was able to really get paid much. Um and he just he owned it, and it was something that is very near and dear to him and the way that he was raised and the things that he's done, um, and his background. Um, he loves on the kids and the adults and our neighbors well, um, but he also will keep all of us safe at the same time. So um he's been great. Um, we also have just so many great partners where part of our model is to bring in quality instructors, whether they're individual instructors or if they're nonprofit organizations, um, we bring them in to come and partner with us to provide the classes um that we provide for our for our neighbors. Something important that is of value is to make sure that our community receives quality programs and events and care because I believe they deserve that. So we bring in the experts in their fields to make sure that they get that. So um we have wonderful pro uh nonprofits and instructors that come in to do that, and they've done that since day one.