Phoenix's There Space Studios closes, launches fundraiser

On Jan. 24, a week after its one-year anniversary show, Phoenix DIY music venue There Space Studios announced via Instagram that it would shut down for the “unforeseeable future.”

“Over the past year, we have fallen in love with the idea of being DIY,” the post read. “Unfortunately, the city of Phoenix has not.”

There Space Studios is the offspring of There Space, a membership-based screenprinting studio housed next door to the small venue.

“We weren’t trying to run a venue,” says co-owner and co-founder Alan Flores. “We really want to be a studio, like a music studio that bands can come and artists can come record.”

There Space started in September 2021 as a small screenprinting collective housed in a garage. In June 2022, the operation moved into a basement. In May 2023, There Space moved into its current home at 1518 E. Van Buren St.

Without the constraints of being in a residential space, it was easy for the There Space team to start throwing DIY shows. The only trouble was moving the screenprinting equipment into a truck to make room for the instruments.

“Music and screenprinting goes hand-in-hand,” says co-founder and co-owner Justice Ashwell, who mostly works on the screenprinting side. “When the next door space opened up, it was like, ‘Let’s try and do the show in there.’”

The building next door (1516 E. Van Buren St.) was up for lease at the end of 2023, and the group’s landlord allowed them to put on a show while he looked for a new tenant. The first show, held on Jan. 6, 2024, featured 1533 Sound Ensemble and Police State. The latter had been printing t-shirts through There Space for years.

“The general state was in a little bit of disarray,” said Police State’s Anders Nordstrom. “It was a little dirty, a little sparse, but it still felt good to be there.”
I attended the same Police State show, and the venue felt dicey. I parked in a dirt alleyway before entering an unmarked building at the posted address. There were red walls and red lighting inside, and no furniture other than a folding table with a “bartender” selling vodka cranberries, vodka orange juices and straight vodka in red plastic cups. The dingy bathroom didn’t have toilet paper or a locking door — just a sign asking everyone to knock before entering. In between sets, a crowd of cigarette smokers with septum piercings gathered outside.

It wasn’t perfect, but what went down in the sweaty building that night felt important.

“We were all just astonished by the energy,” says Flores. “We’re artists, me and (co-owner Jude Kellan), and we just know when something is captivating and special because it comes with a feeling…It just felt right. It felt like something that needed to happen in the city of Phoenix.”

That night Flores, Ashwell and the rest of the folks at There Space decided they didn’t want the show to be a mere one-off.

“We were like, ‘OK, no one else can get this building.’ We have to figure out how to sign the lease,” says Ashwell.

There aren’t a lot of DIY spaces in Phoenix today. Last May, the volunteer-run all-ages venue Trunk Space held the final shows at its home on the grounds of Grace Lutheran Church in downtown Phoenix. It’s still looking for a new location as of publication.

“There was a lot of pressure, too, almost right as we started as a venue,” says Ashwell. “Everyone was looking at There Space Studios as, like, ‘We need a place to play. Please.’”

Logan Greene is the director and one of the founders of Groundworks, a youth-centered DIY music space in Tucson. He’s a musician and a music teacher, and he says a lot goes into running a DIY venue.

“Lots of places will pop up and down, and it’s not always legal issues that shut them down,” says Greene. “Some people just realize it’s a lot of work running something like this…it can be a thankless job.”

Groundworks is run by a team of volunteers. It became a registered nonprofit in 2019, but before its grand opening at the end of 2021, the team running the venue had to move into a new building

“We had communicated what we were doing with (our neighbors) beforehand and what we were planning to do, and they were all on board,” says Greene. “But while we were actually just trying stuff out and having rehearsals…they decided that wasn’t going to work for them anymore.”

Rather than facing a costly lawsuit, Groundworks found a new building away from commercial real estate.

“(Legal experts) tell me that the venue that makes music rarely wins legal battles when it comes to other businesses, or people living nearby, or anything like that,” says Greene. “A lot of DIY spaces just try to operate underground entirely.”
Smaller DIY venues depend on more grassroots support than larger, more traditional venues.

“It’s not in the mainstream, (which) means that there’s just, like, fewer and fewer people and spaces and communities that can support these types of things,” says Greene.

In the past year, and over the course of 60 shows, There Space Studios went from looking like an abandoned building owned by a couple of 20-somethings to a legitimate venue and recording space. It started feeling homier. Comfy furniture was pushed up against the now-white walls next to some lamps, and a lock was finally installed on the bathroom door.

“It changes every show we do,” says Flores. “We want to add something to every show that wasn’t there before.”

Those rotating elements often made all the difference. The stage had been positioned in different spots around the room. A video projector was installed to display on a white sheet behind the bands. And a small boxy TV was set on stage, broadcasting the performance. There had even been a tattoo artist with a flash sheet related to whatever was going on that night. (At least two people are walking around Phoenix with small slug tattoos from a recent Slug Bug show.)

There Space Studio’s first run-in with law enforcement happened in March 2024. They hosted an after-party for Tough Luvv Fest, a multigenre festival that leans toward rap and hip-hop.

“We were naive…we had a shutdown because, literally, 700 people came and they were outside of the building and we just couldn’t handle it,” says Flores. “That was the initial like, ‘Oh my God. We really need to figure out this situation,’ because the fire marshall did come and they told us about city codes and all that.”

There Space Studios couldn’t afford to shut down and renovate, so they continued hosting shows without being up to city code. For months, they avoided trouble with the city, but now, after multiple encounters with Phoenix police, they’ll be fined if they host any more events.

“(There was) a lot of feeling, not as much thinking as maybe we should’ve done,” says Flores. “(It’s) a similar feeling to love, you know, you kind of just get enthralled into it and you make it work by any means.”

Police State’s Nordstrom sees the necessity of permits as a measure of success for There Space Studios.

“It is signifying that they’ve grown to the point where they require those sorts of measures to continue operation,” says Nordstrom. “Most of those DIY spaces fizzle out within a few months.”

There Space Studios is fundraising $22,500 to cover permit fees and inspections, architect and contractor costs, fire safety installations (including sprinklers and breakout doors) and three months of rent. They also need a parking variance to get excused for their lack of parking spaces.

“Right now it’s looking like it’s going to be at least three (months),” says Flores. Ashwell chimes in with, “Maybe.” The pair didn’t look so sure.

Within a few days of posting the fundraiser, There Space Studios raised more than $5,700. The list of donors includes musicians, photographers and other people who frequent the space. They’ve also gotten free advice from a real estate agent, an architect and an attorney.

“It’s amazing what people are doing for us,” says Flores. “At the end of the day, we’re going to have a space that is for everyone, and it’s built by everyone, rather than just a few guys who had an idea. That’ll make it even more special than what it already is.”

If you'd like to contribute to There Space's renovations/updates, the GoFundMe campaign is live.