Zenith Community Arts Foundation

Mission and Vision

Zenith Community Arts Foundation (ZCAF) is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization committed to arts advocacy, arts education, industrial arts, and public art. ZCAF’s vision addresses decline of industrial arts education nationally and locally. Woodshops have been removed from schools and other community organizations, making it difficult to learn woodworking at any stage in life. To counter this trend, ZCAF has begun teaching woodworking skills to DC residents through its Mobile Woodshop.

History

Margery Goldberg (owner of Zenith Gallery and a woodworker) established the non-profit Zenith Community Arts Foundation (ZCAF) in 2000 to promote the visual arts in the Washington metropolitan area and to support the creative economy through coalition building, arts education, and public art. Over time, the vision has increasingly addressed socioeconomic and environmental issues.

Shortly before the covid pandemic struck, ZCAF received funding for its most ambitious initiative yet to develop marketable career skills in the District of Columbia. Our Pre-apprenticeship Mobile Woodshop Program will bring carpentry instructors, tools, and materials into Wards 7 and 8 where, as in so many areas, school woodshops have closed. The program is tuition-free. Past programs have focused on multiculturalism, hunger, and the environment:

• The “Food Glorious Food” (2006-2009), was a fundraising effort to support the Capital Area Food Bank (CAFB). $100,000 was raised through ticket sales, art sales of art and art calendars. 12 top area chefs, 15 artists, businesses, and individuals were involved. CAFB served 60,000/day city-wide residents of DC.

• “The Freedom Place Collection,” (2007) was curated by ZCAF showcasing 56 preeminent artists of the 20th such as Romare Bearden, Benny Andrews, Alma Woodsey Thomas, Robert Freeman, and Richard Yarde. Traveling to Mid-Atlantic cities enabled a diverse audience of 2000 viewers to visit the exhibition.

•  “eARThly concerns,” (2008) a program featured “What Remains: The American Landscape Portfolio,” which raised $35,000 for The Trust for Public Land through the sale of limited-edition giclée prints by renowned realist painter Bradley Stevens. Approximately 400 DC residents visited the exhibition.

• Sustainable and Scrumptious program (2011 to 2012) created and installed a public art mural at the Oyster-Adams Bilingual K-8 School. Some 150 diverse school age children 3rd – 5th grades from Ward 3 participated. Many people have viewed the mural.

• Hands On Workshops (2015 to 2020) partnered with eight government and educational institutions to promote “soft skills” like time management and teamwork. This afterschool program served 60 Latino students 3rd — 6th grade in Ward 4.

• “Play, Protection, or Peril” (2019), a gun violence exhibition featuring 21 artists, included a panel of local police and officials and organization like Mothers Against Violence and the TraRon Center; we served 500 DC residents.

Finding Ballou STAY Opportunity Academy, a DC Public School in Ward 8 to host our PACT has been a major accomplishment for ZCAF in 2021. Ballou STAY specializes in working with young people, ages 16-24, who are returning to school for vocational training. Our PACT will be for-credit elective course for students who are interested and qualified.the