Meet John Henningsen of Thymele Arts in East Hollywood

Today we’d like to introduce you to John Henningsen.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Several years ago, I noticed that performing artists didn’t have a place to come together and work as a community. There were a lot of theater spaces for performance – but there wasn’t a lot of rehearsal and workshop spaces where people can really explore their project. Los Angles was lacking – what a lot of other large cities had – an incubator space for the performing arts.

In 2016, after about a year of searching, I found a loft space in East Hollywood that had been vacant for several years. It was a large space surrounded by windows and skylights and I knew I had found an artistic home. I spend several months transforming the space into workspaces for performing artists. Thymele Arts has a dance studio, four flexible rehearsal rooms, a shared office space for 10+ resident artists and a large community room. Each space can be transformed for rehearsal, performance, or meetings. They are all connected by a beautiful art gallery with a giant skylight.

All of the rooms are booked by the hour and the resident artists desks can be booked Monthly.

Creating space was the first level of supporting artists in LA. Thymele Arts is now engaging industry professionals to provide professional development classes for performing artist. Everything from budgeting and taxes to developing a brand and where to get headshots. As our we learn the needs of our growing community – We continue to grow to support their needs.

Has it been a smooth road?
In the first few months, I was sure I had made the worst decision of my life. I would joke around saying “well I guess I got my first bankruptcy out of the way!” I was still working a full-time job teaching while I was operating Thymele Arts in the evening. Things were slow and it was difficult just to cover the basic expenses. After about eight months of operating Thymele Arts kicked off its first year as a venue for the Hollywood Fringe Festival. In the span of one month over 1,000 theater artists walked through the doors to rehearse, perform, see shows, and attend parties. Word was out and spread like wildfire!! Artists loved the space and the flexible room setups and they flocked to the building. July 4th of 2018 I was able to quit my “day job” and go full time at Thymele.

Now a year later Thymele Arts has a staff of ten, we have an automated booking system so anyone can go online and book an open room with no hassle, and we expanded to include two new studio spaces. We are listening to our new community as it changes and grows, and we are adapting what we do and what we offer to help support area artists.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Thymele Arts story. Tell us more about the business.
Thymele Arts is a performing arts incubator offering relaxed comfortable spaces for artists to explore. The physical building is an eclectic mix of funky antiques. Each room has a large window to let in tons of natural light but can be flipped to create informal performances and “work in progress” showings. Filled with couches, dining room chairs and church pews, Thymele Arts is a great place to spend the afternoon reading a script of catching up on work before rehearsal. It is a stark contrast to the small dark theater spaces with fixed seats on one side of the room or the sterile business center with carpeting and glass walls.

To provide support to as many people as possible we have purposely kept our rental prices affordable with rehearsal and performance spaces starting at $15.

The programs we offer are unique to this area as well. Nestled in the middle of the rehearsal rooms is the resident artists office. It is a shared desk space that brings together artists from all over Los Angeles. Each resident artist gets free time in the rehearsal rooms to develop their piece. We also offer professional development workshops and one-on-one mentorship to help the residents build the business side of their brand as well as the artistic side. Thymele Arts is also happy to spark collaborations between artists. As people spend more time the space – they start to meet new friends and create new projects. Each inspiring the other to create new work.

We recently said goodbye to one of our long-time resident artists. When they started, they had one desk in the corner of the shared office. They had just applied for their LLC and they were ready to “make a go of it”. Over time they added a second desk, then moved to the private office space, then added a desk to supplement the private office and last month. They were able to move into their own office in Atwater Village. That is what Thymele Arts is all about – providing the framework for artists to grow and succeed.

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
The country is well-rooted in the gig economy and there has been a steep climb in corporate co-working spaces in the past few years. As more artists outgrow their home office or living room rehearsal space – I hope we will be able to expand to offer more opportunities for Arts Co-Working and collaboration. In the first two years of existence, Thymele Art has already expanded to offer two additional studio spaces. There is still a high demand for casual, comfortable paces to create art. It is disappointing when we must turn people away because we don’t have any more room.

I truly hope that Thymele Arts and other creative support organizations can expand to other areas around Los Angeles. There is such a rich variety of artists creating work in this city, they just need a home-based, a support system, to catapult their projects and their careers.

Pricing:

• Rehearsal rooms starting at $15/hr
• Performance Space starting at $20/hr
• Desk space starting at $300/mo

Contact Info:

• Address: Thymele Arts
  5481 Santa Monica Blvd.
  Los Angeles, CA 90029
• Website: www.thymelearts.com
• Phone: 323-380-7406
• Email: Thymelearts@gmail.com
• Instagram: @Thymelearts
• Facebook: @ThymeleArts

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