THINK TANK GALLERY & SHOWROOM

THINK TANK GALLERY & SHOWROOM
FT. “LA IS TRYING TO KILL ME” MURAL BY TOMMII LIM

In 2019, after the Ghost Ship Fire forced us to close our beloved Fashion District location and convert it into an event rentals venue, we began to stretch out into other types of creative production. Instead of relying on event rentals and sublets to make rent each month, our primary income was coming from more creative sources. Finding big art projects for our artists, building partnership strategy for brands, coordinating permitting, ticket sales, and producing Immersive installations had become our main revenue streams.

With no shortage of drama, we moved out of the expensive and problematic 13,500 sq ft venue and into a smaller, 3,000 sq ft unit in Skid Row on the Little Tokyo border, without the need to maintain studios booked with tenants. We spent the year renovating the location and opening in phases, with a showroom in the front of the venue, gallery in the center, and kitchen/bar in the back. After each phased opening we began promoting the next, culminating in our ticketed walkthrough experience, Nothing Cheezy.

Just as soon as we had finally completed the final stages of HVAC and ADA compliant restrooms, and booked the location out for 18 months of collaborations with various theatre troupes and creative agencies, the pandemic hit. We used that time to help artists in whatever they needed – from NFT consultation to unemployment assistance – and hosted a couple of livestream events, before finally moving out in Fall 2020, shifting our operation to full service creative agency.