How There Space was a voice for Phoenix culture at SXSW

When the gang behind There Space, a local screen-printing shop in downtown Phoenix, got the call to take, well, their space on the road to South by Southwest in Texas, it was less of a surprise and more like the stars aligning.

“They were like, ‘Hey, by chance, are you guys coming to South By this year?’ And we’re like, no. ‘You want to? Should we set something up?’ And it kind of started snowballing from there,” Jude Kellen says, referring to the partnership with Visit Phoenix to head out to Austin for the weeklong music, media, and advocacy festival.

Kellen is one of four There Space cofounders, including Justice Ashwell, Elijah Flores and Alan Flores, who packed up a sprinter van to road trip and represent Arizona at SXSW. He’s also the drummer for Phoenix band fearofmakingout, whose music has been featured in several Visit Phoenix marketing campaigns around the Valley. When Visit Phoenix partnered with Giant Noise out of Austin to do something new at SXSW,  they leaned on Kellen and his fearofmakingout bandmates to help. That decision sent Kellen back to his partners at There Space, who took the opportunity to create “A Desert Alternative Showcase,” featuring a who’s who of Valley musicians and tastemakers to put on for the event.

“It was more so like, look, what’s the harm in us putting on for our city in a new city? And not only is it one of the most renowned festivals, but that time in Austin, as we learned, the whole city is electrified,” Kellen says while sitting in the lobby of There Space’s new location at 2431 E. Van Buren St. 

There Space previously existed just west of the new location near Van Buren and 16th streets, but closed after butting heads with the city of Phoenix over hosting live events without the proper permits. Flores and Ashwell share a laugh remembering the scrappiness of trying to do a lot with very little.

“1516 E. Van Buren was vacant next to us for like a couple of months. And we used to do shows in the print shop, at 1518. So we would rent a U-Haul, take all the print equipment out of the shop and then do a show,” Ashwell recalls. “And they would sell out because we could only fit 60 people in there. So when next door became vacant, we asked our landlord, ‘Hey, can we just do one show in here?’ And we did that one show in there and it was actually like a 250-person cap. And at the end of the show, I remember we all looked at each other and there was just this unimaginable feeling of like, this can’t be the last one.”

And it wouldn’t be. The artsy outlaws would continue to throw pop-up shows at the old location until the city kicked them out. But seeing the writing on the wall, they secured their new location while the walls were figuratively coming down around them at the old one. Just a day after the original venue shut down, the crew was turning the keys to their new complex, already planning their next big move. 

The energy that only live shows can deliver was on full display at the SXSW showcase as they recruited local music acts kJADE, Belgium Tree, Pariah Pete and Estelle Allen to join fearofmakingout to perform at the Chess Club in Austin.

“We had a 200-cap venue and by the day of the show, we had 1500 RSVP’s,” Kellen says. “It was actually perfect because the event was about four to five hours and what it meant was pretty much the whole time we were at or near capacity. So people were just one in, one out. We had a good crowd that just kept rotating all day for each act.”

One of those attendees ended up being Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego, who was in town speaking at a panel on technology at the festival with other mayors from around the country.

“Stephen from Visit Phoenix runs out back to where we’re live screen printing. And he’s like, ‘The mayor of Phoenix is on her way,’” Ashwell recalls. “So he’s kind of freaking out. He’s like, ‘The mayor of Phoenix is on the way!’ I’m like, holy shit. Well, we’re ready! … And at 4 o’clock she shows up with three other mayors … and the mayor of Phoenix just walks into this 200-cap venue and Belgium Tree is performing. And the strobes are on.”

Gallego would go on to hang out with the gang, listening to Phoenix bands, screen-printing shirts, and enjoying Arizona food and beverage via Chef Devan of Fat Fat’s Chicken Shack with a posse of duly elected officials.

“That was probably the most surprising for sure. That was the most insane. But the mayor of Phoenix and the director of economic growth for Phoenix, we just got to talk to them and like, tell them what we’re building here,” Ashwell continues.

Those connections will be significant in furthering the development of There Space’s creative hub being built at 2431 E. Van Buren St. Touring the impressive space being shaped in the historic building that formerly housed Deer-O Salsa, it’s evident that there’s much more than just a screen-printing shop on the premises. The new headquarters boasts recording studios, a photography studio, a tattoo parlor, a live event venue and tenant spaces for several locally based entrepreneurs including Abigail Spong, founder of Grid PHX and Dusk Market, who Ashwell credits as being instrumental in making the SXSW showcase a reality. In the wake of the SXSW debut, they’re hyper-focused on diverting that energy back into the scene here at home 

“I feel like a good way to sum it up is the day after we got back. We just spent four days straight with 23 people and shared 30-something hours in a car with all these people. And immediately, the day after in the group chat, everyone was like, ‘So, can we hang out?” Ashwell recalls. “It like, glued everyone together even more and just created that higher sense of community for Phoenix.”

The story of homegrown artist spaces getting pushed out of the downtown Phoenix area is a tale as old as time, as the song lyric goes, but the new home of There Space represents hope for the future.

“I do feel like the culture in Phoenix is pushing through the cracks,” Ashwell says. “There’s been a lot of venues that have been shut down. There’s been a lot of places that make it really hard for people to perform. Even places that don’t pay artists properly. So the fact that we’re probably going to be the youngest-owned and -operated venue, we’re the youngest-owned and -operated print shop and it’s artist-owned and -ran, I think that gives us a nice advantage to know what sucks everywhere else and what we think Phoenix is doing wrong, and then get a chance to do it right.”