THINK TANK GALLERY
AT 939 STUDIO
In the minds of most of our audience, when the term “Think Tank” is uttered, the memory it brings up is a moment at our Fashion District DTLA location. From 2010 until 2019, we ran thousands of events out of the 13,500 square foot warehouse, and produced dozens of Immersive art installations from scratch in the experimental gallery and venue.
When we first moved in, there was no hot water and we camped in the middle of the warehouse in tents. Building the place up from scratch, we eventually got to the point that we were hosting anniversary parties for brands like Playboy. It was a group effort, and over the nine years of running the location, we built a co-op art collective that eventually grew to 17 artists strong, and we got very close to getting the location fully permitted for live/work. Over 70 creators passed through our venue before we were forced to close by restrictions placed on industrial venues due to the Ghost Ship Fire.
After Ghost Ship, we converted the venue to a full-service rental facility called 939 Studio, where we continued to host events for brands and creative collectives of all kinds, as well as renting it out to Think Tank Gallery for some shows. Before our time was up and we moved to the Skid Row area, hundreds of thousands of people had visited the location for a variety of shoots and events, and we had reached millions of people online with content that was shot there.
Think Tank was born in this Santee Alley warehouse, and we grew up in the District.