Building a grassroots creative community with Secret Riso Club

Keeping a grassroots, artist-run space and studio alive and thriving in a city like New York isn't always easy. But rooted in New York's tradition of DIY artist spaces, the Bushwick-located Secret Riso Club is now a touchpoint on the city's creative map. The co-directors Gonzalo Guerrero and Tara Ridgedell share their learnings when it comes to reinvesting in community, pooling resources and throwing an event to remember.

Tell us about SRC?
We’re an artist-run space & creative studio that serves as a resource for independent publishing, design & art projects development, programming, exhibitions and more. Secret Riso Club started in 2017 out of Gonzalo's living room, which is why it was 'secret'. It started as an extension of Gonzalo's creativity, but also as a way to use design outside of commercial means. Since then, we've had quite a few different spaces, but we've been in our current space now for two years.

We have a few different branches. The retail store, where we sell independent publications from across the world and our own work. Our public programs, which include a small gallery and a lot of workshops and panels. Our print production studio, where we work with artists and small institutions to create artist books and other types of print production – posters, invites, flyers and whatnot. Then our membership program, where people come in and use the studio for their own work. Finally, our creative design studio, where we work with smaller organizations on design work – often a lot of music-related things and off-site activations or workshops.

What’s one creative hurdle you’re trying to overcome with SRC?
A question that we're trying to answer is, is it possible to sustain a practice in a city like New York without needing to follow traditional capitalist ideologies? We’re trying to do things at a slower, more reflective pace, away from unfettered growth.

I think it's possible, but you have to have community. One way we're answering this is our membership program. We try to offer a lot of accessible programs – not just workshops, but outside fairs or open studios, so people can come and be a part of our membership. We have a really strong community which is integral to our business and something we don't take for granted.

Did you feel like there weren’t so many accessible spaces when you started?
Gonzalo and I met through DIY spaces here in New York, so we feel that we're in that lineage. Over the past 10 years in New York, we've seen a lot of those DIY spaces shut down for various reasons, but mainly money. That scene has inspired so much of Secret Riso Club's ethos and we wanted to continue it.

What is one thing you think no one talks about in the creative industries that they should talk about more?
One thing I think is undertalked about is the hard work and precarity of running a creative space. Gonzalo has been doing this full-time for the whole run; I've been doing it full-time for four years. In that time, it's been a process of learning how to feel comfortable with that precarity. Even at this point, there are months where everything is so tight and we don't know where the money is coming from or what's going to happen. With social media, I find myself assuming things and I think people assume things about us – like, ‘Oh, you're putting on all these events, you must have tons of funding or never struggle’. I think that most creatives I know are really struggling right now.

What we've learned is that being comfortable in that precarity is important. Of course, learning to be okay in that is really difficult and sometimes it's scary, but also, we wake up every day so grateful that we get to do what we do. I don't have an automatic refill on my paycheck every two weeks, but I get to do all these things that I want to do; we really understand that balance and what's more important to us.

Resource sharing is part of your model. What does this mean in practice?
What that means for us is doing things in ways that are not necessarily completely rooted in money, but in how we exchange resources. So we do a lot of exchanges or barters; for example, exchanging a package of our books with another small press’. And then resource sharing and time sharing.

With surplus budget, we don't always have much, but when we do, we try to reinvest it. We did a paid project with MoMA a couple years ago, and we wanted to reallocate that money into a micro-grant program. When Zohran got elected here in New York, we made a poster, sold them online, and then donated the proceeds to a mutual aid group in Bushwick. And with our workshop model, we usually have a certain amount of tickets at full price, and then we're able to offer half-price or sliding-scale tickets to different community members. So really trying to see how money is flowing and allocating it in a way that feels fair for all involved.

Three things that make a great SRC event?

Go-to drink and snack for one of your events:
A good wine or a good seltzer – we’re really into spin drift. Popcorn: we always have dogs, and popcorn is dog-safe.

What would you say if someone is nervous about coming to one of your events for the first time?
I would encourage them to come – one thing I love about our community is that people truly show up and are really here to make new friends. I've seen so many beautiful relationships blossom from being in our community. Come and talk to people, because they want to be here and talk and connect too. I think the people who come to our events are tremendously cool, but it's accessible. Book people are the best people in the world.

One piece of advice for emerging creatives?
Don't be so fixed on what you need to do; be open to where your interests and life take you. Neither Gonzalo nor I started out doing this or thought, ‘Oh, we're gonna one day open exactly this thing’. We've really spent a lot of time in reflection and conversation and being okay with risk to get here.

Right now, we're at the end of a hiring process and have been very much steeped in seeing people's resumes. It feels very much like young people are trying to follow a formula, like they left college and were told you need to do it this way, even down to follow-ups. I think people are forgetting that they need to share their own passion. The people who we like are not the people who necessarily look good on paper. People who have a wide range of interests and are already doing things without leaving it to a prescribed checklist are interesting and who we want to work with. And also, please don't use AI or only AI on your application – we got a lot of just straight AI answers for a communications position!