ZEAL is a worker owned creative arts studio alliance where we cultivate emergent creative community development strategies to cooperatively own and steward the means of our cultural production. Through our creative talent development, social impact studio practice, and creative placemaking we celebrate our lineages, assert our voices, archive our legacy, and showcase our artistic talents toward building community wealth across the Black diaspora.
our studio practice
FEATURED PROJECTS
The Remedy is Solidarity
This multimedia anthology comprises of volumes that gives a background story on the location and/or issue where reparations processes are being deliberated that take on structural approaches to remedies inclusive of, and not exclusive to cash payments. As part of a cultural strategy, the volumes will be catalyzed through exhibitions, audio/visual testimonies, artwork, zines, and curated music and sounds and captured with a community archival process.
Launches October 2024
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Launches October 2024 〰️
Creative-led Community Development Initiative - Metro Los Angeles (Inglewood)
ZEAL received a pre-development grant of $150,000 from Kataly Foundation 2022-2023 for Phase 1 of our work to assess opportunities in South LA to build reparative community wealth initiatives through Black arts and culture ecosystems which led ZEAL principal members to provide sub-grants via our fiscal sponsor Allied Media Projects to the following Black arts and culture organizations in the area:
Residency Art Gallery : $15,000 in addition to subsidized rental support with their gallery, capacity building towards scaling up their business, and relocating their space to Hollywood Park while experimenting with exhibitions and installations in their former space in Downtown Inglewood.
SOLA Contemporary: $15,000 to support adapting their model after being displaced from their gallery on Slauson in the Hyde Park neighborhood bordering Inglewood. Currently they are partnering with Hilltop Cafe locations to display Black artists’ works.
ITS-IN-SCOPE: $10,000 to experiment with their art merchandise, commerce, community archival, and showroom concepts that create a collaborative revenue generating model based on cooperative principles.
ZEAL currently is conducting a feasibility study to explore the establishment of a downtown arts and cultural district association for the City of Inglewood, CA.