BROOKINGS – Looking for a place to do some studio photography or undertake a creative project, in a workshop maybe? 

The Creative Space Studio, owned and operated by Gerrit and Brittany DeRyke in downtown Brookings at 314 Main Ave., Suite No. 1, is ready to accommodate you. The front half of the business is a photography studio rental, and the back half serves as a DIY studio.

Gerrit is a Canton native; Brittany, a Brookings native. (Her dad owns Pizza King.) She grew up here and graduated from Brookings High School in 2010, then attended South Dakota State University for a semester before undergoing training in Sioux Falls to become a massage therapist.

Brittany worked as a therapist for a couple years in both Brookings and Sioux Falls.

“I then realized that I couldn’t do that forever. So I went to Sioux Falls to Southeast Tech for marketing design. Then I transferred to University of Sioux Falls to complete my bachelor’s (degree) in business and marketing.”

Following graduation in 2015, she and Gerrit moved to Chicago and lived there for about three years. She worked in sales at Verizon. Following a promotion for Gerrit, they moved to Minneapolis, where Brittany continued to work for Verizon.

“When we were in Minneapolis, … COVID happened,” she said, smiling. “Everything shut down. Prior to that, we were actually looking to open up our own business there, like a DIY place in Minneapolis.

“We had a commercial broker, all the financing back and everything. There was talk of it (COVID), but it wasn’t here yet. I don’t know if you know much about Minnesota, but there they completely shut down.”

Back to Brookings

Married three years at the time, they had just had a baby, Carter. So they decided to move back to Brookings and be closer to home and family. Gerrit’s father had cancer.

“Family is really important to us,” Brittany said, smiling. “Not to see people just through Facetime.”

After their return to Brookings and while on maternity leave, she took some photography classes online. 

“I got into that. I guess my main priority for when I had Carter was that I wanted to stay at home with him. To kind of give him the same experience my dad was able to give my younger brother.”

After moving back to Brookings, Brittany again came to know that “South Dakota winters are awful. During the winter you couldn’t really take any pictures, because people can’t go outside with their babies or children. You, know what I mean? It’s just not feasible.”

When the DeRykes were living in Minnesota and in Sioux Falls, she had rented out studio space where she could take pictures. She noted that in Brookings they found “there is nothing like this here. So I started looking at spaces for myself just to do photography indoors.”

That got her to thinking if they could afford the overhead cost of a studio, “why not share it with other people? Because maybe they’re in the same situation that I was.”

Brittany doesn’t consider herself a studio photographer. “I love the outdoors,” she explained. “The studio is nice with bad weather, when you don’t want to be outdoors.”

That being said, she can be found photographing “beautiful families, couples, kiddos and weddings. I do a little bit of everything right now. I haven’t really narrowed down what specific thing I want to do.”

Time for a DYI spot

Back in Minnesota, the DeRykes had considered opening a DYI store.

“I’ve always been creative, I guess, growing up,” Brittany said. “My mom owns a jewelry business here in town. We’ve always been creative, ever since I was little. It’s just something fun to do.

“I thought if I can make this space two different spaces that I could bring something to the Brookings community. I feel growing up that there isn’t much to do here: you can go bowling, you can go to the movies. As far as being creative, Brookings doesn’t have that.”

The front half of The Creative Space is a photography studio. People can rent the studio area by the hour: “Any photographer, content creator, influencer or just for someone looking to take some photos with friends or family with super cute furniture.”

The back half of the space is for DYI projects: “During our open-studio time, people can just drop in and paint or create a project.” 

The shelves contain “tons of stuff you can just grab and paint.”

Add to that scheduled workshops that can be pre-registered for. Brittany will do all the preparation of the materials, so those who have scheduled a workshop can drop in and get started. She suggested gatherings such as ladies nights, bachelorette parties, birthday parties and team building.

Check out www.thecreativespacestudiosd.com for additional information and business hours, which are varied, or call 605-939-0163.

Contact John Kubal at jkubal@brookingsregister.com.