The artist conglomerate welcomes all ideas and skills at Signal Hill’s collective creative space.
Tucked in a quiet street in Signal Hill lies an art studio with a hydroponic station, woodworking area, 3D printing capabilities, a dark room, small kitchen space and an invitation to independent artists needing the space and time to create.
The space — half garage, half outdoor patio — is filled with collaborative and contrasting technologies, mediums, sounds, images, shapes and tastes. Artists who join the cohort are surrounded by various art pieces that inspire and the near constant hum of construction work, welcoming any and all creation to take place.
“We needed the space and time to create, so that’s where the name came from,” said David Hedden, one of the founders of SpaceTime Collaborative. “A lot of our friends also needed the space so we share the mentality of collaboration. If one person knows a skill that we need support with with what we’re working on, we share tools, we share expertise, so it’s in the collaborative nature that we can do more when we work together.”
Longtime friends and artists Hedden and Gabe Gaete met while working for the Makers Space at the Billie Jean King Main Library almost 10 years ago. They were both honing their STEAM-based skill set (science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics) when they heard about the Maker Faire in 2016.
The festival was created in 2006 to bring together creatives in a wide range of interests, from scientists and coders to crafters and homesteaders. Hedden and Gaete visited the fair and were inspired by the smorgasbord of art and design, specifically a band that couldn’t find a drummer and so decided to build their own.
Using Hedden’s background as a drummer and Gaete’s skills with engineering, they decided to create something that combined their love of technology, sound and the freedom of creativity.
Thus, the Box of Boom was born: a drum kit connected to an intricate clump of wires feeding signals to play the parts of the instrument by pushing different buttons. The group took the Box of Boom on a tour through different festivals, racking up awards and grants to keep growing along the way.
“It was really just to see a creative idea come into fruition and see what happens,” Hedden said. “As opposed to doing projects for clients and for others, just having this passion project and to see it through to the finish, we didn’t really know if people would like it or not but there would be people lined up to play it and it was really rewarding to see people respond to it.”
The Box of Boom needed a home after its tour run, and as the different parts of the project sat in group member’s backyards they searched for a space to keep building it, along with their other ideas. They went to visit their friends’ nonprofit Dramatic Results that works with local schools to give kids STEAM education and found the perfect space for what they needed behind the office.
“The stuff I work on and the way I work and collaborate with other folks, this is something that I’m able to directly bring to my students and I utilize those things everyday in my work with Long Beach youth.”
– Gabe Gaete, co-founder of SpaceTime Collaborative
Dramatic Results works with the Long Beach Public Library to offer free workshops to students, and the longstanding relationship resulted in Signal Hill’s unique artist space nestled behind the nonprofit.
“Part of our program has also been to create a residency program for local creatives to pitch an idea and then have something where all the members can support that idea and make it a collaborative project with a timeline and make some sort of show or exhibit at the end,” Hedden said.
Since 2019, SpaceTime Collaborative has transformed the Signal Hill warehouse space into a safe haven for independent artists to combine their ideas and work together to create out-of-the-box exhibits and projects. Their first event was a Bugsgiving Dinner, where local chefs crafted a Thanksgiving-style feast of scrumptious dishes made with creepy crawlies in the small industrial kitchen.
The group has also worked with the City of Long Beach to help host the virtual Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration during the pandemic, with enough space for musical guests and speakers to perform. Creativity has no bounds at SpaceTime Collaborative, as they’ve hosted a wide variety of exhibits using drones, music composition, film photography, urban farming, augmented reality and 3D-printed creations.
SpaceTime Collaborative now offers memberships to artists who need the space and connections to grow. Behind the squeaky red door that faces the street, artists can come and use the various workshop spaces, work together on projects and teach one another their skill sets to produce synergistic, immersive shows.
When asked about the success of their once small, now sprawling and extraordinary collaborative efforts, Gaete said it came naturally.
“[Hedden] and I are so like minded, we’re always finding interesting concepts to spread out into the community,” Gaete said. “It’s one of those things where you don’t really see it until someone points it out to you, because you’re in the middle of it and you don’t even know exactly why you’re doing it. I think that’s how art has always been to me.”
Members are also welcome to take advantage of the weekly artist groups, which Hedden referred to as an “artist support group.” Artists convene weekly to work on whatever projects they want, asking each other for tips and ideas late into the evening.
Hedden and Gaete further the collaborative nature and share it with their students, as both grow their artistic journey into educational efforts. Hedden is a design professor at Cal State Long Beach while Gaete has continued his work with the Makers Space, so SpaceTime Collaborative has far reaching impacts across all age groups.
“The stuff I work on and the way I work and collaborate with other folks, this is something that I’m able to directly bring to my students and I utilize those things everyday in my work with Long Beach youth,” Gaete said.
The latest project on their mind calls back to the inception of the group. Inspired by the Box of Boom, they’re working on a more personal, immersive sonic project with a tentative title, “The Dome of Ome” which will take ideas such as sound baths combined with acoustic capabilities to allow people to create a musical piece using their own voice and instruments of their choosing in a space of solitude.
SpaceTime promotes their members’ exhibits and recurring events on its Instagram page @spacetimecollaborative.
