No Studios, Milwaukee’s new creative arts hub, making debut
John Ridley knows about success. The Oscar-winning screenwriter and filmmaker from Mequon believes it is something that comes from fostering an environment where people can build on success together.
That’s Ridley’s pragmatic hope for No Studios, the creative arts hub he co-founded in downtown Milwaukee with Milwaukee Film past board chair – and Milwaukee County Executive – Chris Abele.
The hub, at 1037 W. McKinley Ave. in the Pabst Brewery complex, is marking its formal debut with an open house this weekend, with a number of events free and open to the public.
“Success generally invites more success,” Ridley said in a phone interview from New York City, where he was working on postproduction of his next movie, “Needle in a Timestack.” “What we’re trying to do is prepare people for more success.”
With 40,000 square feet of space, No Studios is modeled after creative “clubs” elsewhere, where shared spaces as well as office space bring together people creating art and entertainment “where, as we say, they can socialize with purpose,” Ridley said.
In addition to longer-term tenants, No is selling memberships at levels ranging from $30 to $200 a month, giving members differing levels of access to services and social space in the three-story facility.
Part of the measure of the for-profit project’s success, Ridley said, will be if No can help convince Milwaukee that the entertainment industry is something to invest in — and that by nurturing that industry, the community will be nurturing job creation.
It’s not just actors and directors and writers who work in entertainment, he added.
“It becomes about technology, it becomes about software,” Ridley said. But, also, “if you’re a carpenter, there’s a career for you (in entertainment). If you’re a seamstress, there’s a career for you.”
It’s not like other cities haven’t grown their own creative industries. Take Atlanta, he said: “If it can happen in Georgia, why can’t it happen in Milwaukee?”
Although it’s not intended to be movies-centric, No Studios is home to several film-related tenants. The roster includes Milwaukee Film, which operates the Milwaukee Film Festival; the Milwaukee Filmmaker Alliance; 371 Productions; Custom Reality Services; the University of WisconsinMilwaukee’s Film Department; Marquette University; Media Circus International; and Gener8tor.
With a stage and screening space, the building is designed to host film screenings, performances, art exhibitions and other events, including meetings.
Ridley, best known as the Oscarwinning screenwriter of “12 Years a Slave” and creator of the ABC drama “American Crime,” will be in Milwaukee Friday for the open house, and again the next week during the Milwaukee Film Festival, which starts Oct. 18. (He’s on the film festival’s board of directors.)
While a number of the weekend’s open-house events are free and open to the public, membership has its privileges. Among them this weekend is a members-only preview screening of “What They Had,” an Oscar-contender drama due later this year with Hilary Swank, Michael Shannon, Blythe Danner and Robert Forster.
Such events also bring people together, Ridley said, and foster creative connections that make future success, and development of a vital creative arts industry, possible.
For Ridley personally, No Studios is also about giving back.
“Frankly, I’m only here because people gave me more than one opportunity …,” he said. “And I really do want to impart that to other people.”
While Ridley is the CEO of No Studios, his sister, Lisa Caesar, is chief operating officer. His other job, filmmaker, keeps him busy. His latest movie, “Needle in a Timestack,” is speculative fiction with a side order of time travel, and stars Leslie Odom Jr., Cynthia Erivo, Orlando Bloom and Freida Pinto. It’s due in theaters sometime next year.
The 12-hour days that go into being a working filmmaker have their roots in the passion to create, something Ridley has had since growing up and performing in Mequon.
“If there was a space like this when I was growing up, I’d have been there every day,” he said.