Colorado Creatives Club makes art more social

Not long after Creatives Club launched in Denver in September 2025, Leo Gehrman decided to stop by for the first time. As an artist, the format of the club appealed to him immediately: a place where he could decompress after work with others and have fun while creating without needing any preparation or being limited to any single type of project.

“I work nine to five, so being able to come here right afterward and just doodle around, have a sweet drink and get to chat with friends is really nice,” Gehrman said.

Nearly a year after his first meetup, Gehrman now uses Creatives Club as both a work session and a social space. 

“Right now I’m working on drawing fish with my friends,” Gehrman said. “It’s something that we had an idea for a zine.”

During his time in the Creatives Club, Gehrman has worked on a set of “Magic: The Gathering” card proxies, experimented using only colored pencils for a sketchbook and created assets for a video game he is developing. Earl Anema, who helps run the Denver chapter, said members have been able to watch the project grow over time. 

“Through almost a year ago, when we first met him, he’s been working on a video game, and we’ve gotten to follow the progress of it,” Anema said. “It’s even been fun getting to play some of the prototypes of it.”

Gehrman has brought his Nintendo DS to club meetups to create pixel art for the game. He has also asked other members for suggestions and drawings, turning the project into something collaborative. 

“Being able to just walk in, literally walk in, and be like, ‘Hey, give me things,'” Gehrman stated, is extremely beneficial. “Hopefully one day when I get to make this game, (those assets from other people) will be in (the game).”

That low-pressure collaboration is the point of Creatives Club. Though the club started in Washington, D.C. in 2022, it now has chapters in Denver and Boulder, along with a Discord server where members from different cities share work, trade ideas, post memes and keep in touch between meetups. 

Since December 2025, founder Gus Becker has hosted weekly Thursday meetups from 6 to 9 p.m. at VisionQuest Brewery, 2510 47th St. Suite A2, in Boulder. In Denver, Anema organizes Wednesday meetups with Dot Williams and Jamie Richards, owners of Art Club Coffee at 3659 Navajo St., where the group meets from 5 to 7 p.m.

“The Denver chapter is this collaborative effort because it’s not only a Creatives Club,” Becker said. “We call the meetup Creatives and Coffee because it’s half Creatives Club, half Art Club Coffee.”

At the Art Club Coffee, people sketch in notebooks or draw on tablets, often with coffee or another drink nearby. Some work on zines or character sketches. Tattoo artists bring designs they are developing, then later share the finished pieces with the group. Elsewhere in the coffee shop, people knit, weave, code, write or work with fabric.

“We have all sorts of artists here,” Anema said. “I’m very proud of everybody’s work.”

The origins of Creatives Club go back to Becker’s time in Washington, D.C. He regularly attended a Friday meetup organized by local residents, but felt he wasn’t getting enough out of them.

“I learned that there were some other folks in that group that had these creative projects that they wanted to work on but never felt like they had the time to do it,” Becker said. “It felt like they were choosing socializing over these creative things.” 

The goal was to create a space where people could meet new friends or hang out with familiar ones while also working on the projects they had been putting off. When Becker moved back to Colorado with his wife in August 2024, he decided to start a new chapter.

“It started as an experiment; I was just trying to meet people. I wasn’t sure if it was gonna go anywhere,” Becker said. “When I realized that the Instagram page allowed more people to come to it, I realized that it did have potential.”  

Art Club Coffee became a natural home for the Denver meetup. The queer-owned coffee shop, which usually closes at 3 p.m., reopens on Wednesdays for Creatives and Coffee. Williams and Richards opened Art Club Coffee in July 2025 after taking over a previous coffee shop where Williams had been the manager.

“This is our first foray into being entrepreneurs; it still feels very surreal,” Williams said. “We’re really grateful for this neighborhood. They really welcomed us with open arms. We’ve got a lot of regulars.” 

Because the shop runs with a small staff, the Wednesday meetups make for long days. Williams and Richards work regular hours, handle administrative tasks, reopen for Creatives and Coffee and sometimes host groups as large as 50 people.

“It’s a lot of hard work, and it’s a lot of fun,” Richards said. “We’re still having a blast and I think that has been important to us, a goal of starting this business was, this has got to bring joy.” 

For some participants, the draw is getting outside their usual creative bubble. Sitting at the counter, an artist from the next door tattoo shop that goes by D worked on a new flash sheet, paintings, experimented with big pens and practiced his technique. D has only attended Creatives and Coffee a few times but said the variety of projects keeps the space interesting.

“Being surrounded just by tattoo art, it can be a little stifling, so I like to be around other people,” D said. “It’s nice to do shit that’s different than just painting and drawing.”

Becker now considers the experiment a success. He said he has seen smaller friend groups form within the larger club, while the Discord server has helped members stay connected beyond weekly meetings.

With two chapters open in Colorado and the original D.C. chapter still active, Becker extends an open invitation to members to start new chapters in other cities, offering his assistance in getting new Creatives Club chapters started.

“I feel really good about it, and I definitely think I’ll be in Colorado for a while,” Becker said. “I’m excited to see what the future holds.”