Zygote Press

2022 program service accomplishments are as follows: bipoc artist-in-residence program in 2021, Zygote launched a residency program for bipoc artists. The bipoc residency program provides artists with a three-month residency, 500 stipend, individual instruction of printmaking processes, project mentorship, collaborative work space, year-long artspass memberships, 24/7 access to our state-of-the-art printmaking studio, and storage for the artists' work. The objective of the artist-in-residence (air) program for bipoc artists is to provide emerging and established artists, creatives, and educators the opportunity to expand their practice by learning a variety of print techniques, including silkscreen, monoprint, and riso. In 2021, five artists were chosen through an open call for a month-long residency. These five airs in the pilot program created falling through the little edges, an exhibition in Zygote's gallery that included the results of the artists' collaboration, as well as individual new work completed during their residencies. Expanded from one-month residencies, in 2022, these three-month residencies provide time and flexibility for artists to hone their chosen printmaking techniques and integrate what they have learned into their larger practice. Added time provides deeper connections to the printmaking community through the relationships artists will build while working in the studio. Artists work in two cohorts of three, creating peer groups that model the creative incubator environment of a master of fine arts program. Small cohorts provide a sounding board for peer reviews and an environment of sharing collective challenges and successes. Indicative of the program's success, past airs have been central to improvements to the program and stay involved with Zygote as teaching artists and jurors. In all, the program has seen increasing interest. Twenty artists applied to the spring 2022 open call, and twenty-six to the fall 2022. Spring 2022 bipoc airs were ron shelton, will0w watson, and bri robinson; fall 2022 bipoc airs are charisse harris, sydney jefferson, and paula jackson. Operating costs for shop maintenance in the summer of 2021, Zygote reopened to the public with exhibitions, limited workshop opportunities, and open access studio hours. In 2022, our workshops, exhibitions, and off-site events grew rapidly, returning the organization to nearly pre-pandemic levels of activity. To ensure that reopening included an effective response to calls for action in diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion (deai) and safety, we have revised several staff, shop, and printmaking policies. We have new handbooks for organizational operations, deai, and shop operations. We improved our handbook for handling hazardous materials. Prior to this grant, the inventory list and other information were out of date. With these changes and improvements, Zygote continues to be one of the greenest printmaking facilities in the country. Studio staff engages in ongoing professional development and research in the area of green printmaking in order to stay up to date on best practices. Zygote artists use inks, cleaning products, chemical formulas that are far less harmful to the environment, to artists, and are more sustainable overall. For deai, our facility prioritizes anti- racist policies, diversity, equity, and inclusion training, an updated code of conduct for our employee handbook, and collaboration with our members and teaching artists to sustain an atmosphere of support and inclusivity. The board has been active in the process of updating documents and processes. Furthermore, as an employer, we have made progress on advancing equity in the arts in northeast Ohio. For the first time, in 2021, we offered staff paid time off, and in 2022, with gund funding, we introduced health insurance stipends. We continue to make progress by increasing salaries and benefits. We plan to give staff raises at the end of 2022 to ensure retention and continuity. Educational programs in 2022, Zygote saw an explosion of interest in educational and community programs. In 2022, Zygote worked in partnership with case western reserve university art history professor, erin benay, and her students, on a self- advocacy and social justice printmaking education program to empower underrepresented youth in cleveland's clark-fulton neighborhood. In 2022, we participated in several events/festivals, including pride parade, cleveland metroparks zoo, coventry street fair, waterloo arts festival, cleveland asian fest, and ingenuityfest. Through these programs and others, earned revenue increased from 54,411 in 2021 to 100,470 in 2022. Zygote's community of partners has also grown and changed in the last few years. We work with literary cleveland, spaces gallery, praxis fiber workshop, asiatown, cuyahoga county public library, cleveland public library, neo regional sewer district, ingenuitycleveland, and others. Using Zygote's mobile art Press (map), we bring free, interactive public art experiences to waterloo arts, cleveland museum of art, cleveland pride, slavic village, coventry village, and others. Exhibitions in 2021-22, we completed a total of 6 exhibitions. These exhibitions were: -virtual exhibition: pocho / curated by lauren cardenas: pocho celebrates the hybridity of latinx/american identity. By definition, a "pocho" is an anglicized mexican or american of mexican origin who speaks spanish with a u. s. accent and who distorts and reconstructs the language. -let's just pretend (we're having fun): the pieces kasumi created during her Zygote residency consist of bits of sampled imagery from some of her earlier films, video-art, and paper collages, along with fragments of 80's manga and graffiti. While he has long been intrigued by the infinite possibilities apparent in the realms of both printmaking and digital visual effects, mark has found both somewhat alien to his training and instincts as a sculptor. -tiny roads that lead to nowhere: sean p. morrissey and lenore thomas who explore our environments and ideas of home in connected, but different ways. -falling through the little edges: mansa lamont bey, bhavani srinivas, and gina Washington as part of Zygote's inaugural bipoc residency program. -off the wall annual exhibition: handmade, local, original works of art by Zygote members, shop artists, staff, and interns. ?women that print: a Zygote Press showcase at metrohealth main campus. A new show, hanging at metrohealth hospital, to complement the women in print exhibition at the cleveland museum of art that highlights the work of female printmakers. Zygote featured prints by 8 women that currently work at Zygote Press. -queer ecology hanky project, an exhibition of over 120 artist-made bandanas organized by vanessa adams and mary tremonte. The organizing artists invited artists to explore queer ecology-an area of inquiry which unites the study of biology, environment, and sexuality with a framework of queer theory- to glimpse at divergent possibilities for gender and sexuality, models of resilience and resistance. -can triennial: "you are here" - a multi-venue exhibition organized in collaboration with an intergenerational, diverse team of curators from a range of institutional affiliations. The exhibition gave an experiential journey through the literal geography of our city, and the ever-complicated situational understandings of place, context, identity, and-ultimately action. -ideal: riso group show, an exhibition of contemporary artists and publishers using risograph duplicators to produce fine art editions and artist books. Planning and design of cross-disciplinary arts center throughout 2022 we have been actively gathering partners with similar goals and missions. With support from the george gund foundation, we are working with process creative and architect john williams to move to a larger space that will serve as a cultural community center for Zygote and peer organizations in cleveland. Relocation to a bigger, more accessible, and, therefore, more inclusive space will enable Zygote to be the lead organization for a multi-disciplinary arts center. Championing a need in the community, Zygote will create and implement a business infrastructure of shared spaces, business resources, and staff. This will allow for needed consolidation and right-sizing of arts services and community programs. With a deep history in social justice initiatives in communities of all kinds, printmaking can serve as a tool of expression for all. The new space will open opportunities for community-building where community members of all ages can walk into a cultural space and take advantage of learning opportunities, social services, and cultural engagement. Enhancing Zygote's community engagement staff and building up deai across the organization will be important steps towards shifting Zygote's place cleveland's arts ecosystem.