On restoration with community in mind, people who have too much going on, and the best-dressed man on the planet.

In Conversation with Ted Gerike, Director, the Clay Theater ; Founder, Editorial Director at Now Instant; formerly Director of Digital Content and Strategy at Metrograph

Ted Gerike is a cross-industry creative who has worked in art museums, ad agencies, and film production before settling into his niche corner of media and experiences. Previously, he was the Director of Content and Strategy at Metrograph. In 2018, he co-founded Now Instant Image Hall, an immaculately curated cinema and bookstore in LA, and is now the Director of the Clay Theatre.

🐝 On people who have too much going on

I’m inspired by people who have too much going on. Some clarity comes out of that chaos.

Thom Bettridge’stake on i-D is idiosyncratic and refreshing, and he maintains a writing practice and creative direction business (his newsletter Content is worth a follow.) Calla Henkel and Max Pitegoff at New Theater Hollywood are staging a new play or performance what feels like every other week. Emmanuel Olunkwa’s November Mag conversations are essential reading, and he stays busy. Filmmaker Aslı Baykal's Airtime World is the only streaming platform that matters.

🖼️ On the good stuff

I feel like good stuff always cuts through. People remain obsessed with Glen Luchford’s ‘90s Prada campaigns or Mike Mills’ and Roman Coppola’s Gap ads from the ‘90s because they’re just good.

Sara Moonves’ tenure at W Mag has been defined by making good stuff. W’s Best Performances and Directors issues are media spectacles that have the impact you'd expect from an old-school magazine launch. I run to a newsstand to pick those issues up, the Tyrone Lebon covers and videos this year were insane, and stylistically totally disparate from Juergen Teller’s in 2024 or Mert + Alas’ last year. It takes execution and openness to stray from a house style and dedicate your business to making good stuff, which says a lot about Moonves’ editorial vision. She doesn’t hold the bat too tightly.

👔 On the best-dressed man on the planet

When I worked at the ICA Philadelphia I would go to this amazing shop Avril 50 every day for coffee. It's tiny and tucked in a little alley right off of UPenn's campus. Every square foot of the inch is covered with the craziest range of publications and products: glossy international fashion and niche magazines, white papers on global policy, imported chocolate and cigars and tobacco, and coffee brewed in-house by the proprietor, John Shahidi, who may be the best-dressed man on the planet. My daily trips to this claustrophobic box of treasures coincided with a mid-career survey of Jeremy Deller and an installation of Wendy Yao’s Ooga Booga at the ICA. I would work shifts at Deller’s Valerie’s Snack Bar and help organize weekly public programming for the installation of Ooga Booga. I couldn’t put a finger on it at the time, but being in contact with these deeply relational spaces and practices made me want to open a shop of my own.

🔨 On restoration with community in mind

I’m currently working to re-open the Clay Theater, a historically landmarked venue in San Francisco that’s been shuttered since early 2020. Normally, events or media businesses take over existing venues and skin them as quickly as possible to start generating revenue, but because the Clay is an empty shell that needs to be re-entitled, it’s an opportunity to take the time required to build a venue that serves a 21st-century audience, and develop an economic model and media product that serves the venue and audience. The Clay will be a platform for screening, conversation, and performance, where live events organized with partners across the cultural landscape are recorded and editorialized, with an editorial staff whose IP and verticals are eventized as ticketed performances.

We’re lucky to have amazing partners on board: I’m working with Perron Studios to craft the experience, aesthetic, and heartbeat of the venue for visitors and talent. I’m working with Arup to create a world-class acoustic experience and the infrastructure needed to realize our programming as editorial content. I’m working with our architects to comply with local code and honor the character-defining features of the building, and Cody Allen of the Upper Fillmore Revitalization Project to understand the legacy of the neighborhood and how this project fits into its future.