Fertile Soil for Growth

This shift in our programming focus led to several major achievements in 2020 that centered the voices, needs and dreams of Black artists. In June, our staff and board identified three long term priorities and six immediate action steps we could take to intentionally center Black artists, audiences, and stories. We are proud of the progress we’ve made toward these priorities and action steps, all of which is documented online in our Action Plan.

With these priorities in mind, as planning commenced for the second issue of SKEW, Level Ground hired an all-Black team of curators to oversee the entire issue, from developing its theme to overseeing its design and visual elements to selecting the work that would be included in the magazine. Through the hard work of curators Karine Fleurima, Leslie Foster, Lola Rose Eros, and Turay Pastel, as well as designer Nikki Pressley and 50 Black artists whose work is featured in the magazine, SKEW’s second annual print issue, “Black Dreams, Futures, & Mutual Support” came into being. This issue of SKEW is cooperatively owned by the curators, designer, and contributing artists. This means that 100% of SKEW sales directly support the collection of over 50 Black artists who make up the 2020 SKEW community.

After the successful release of SKEW in November 2020, we launched the Syllabus Project, a new program to foster a shared language and raise our collective consciousness together. Twice a year, Level Ground artists will curate a themed media syllabus of podcasts, articles, films, books, and more. SKEW curators Turay Pastel and Lola Rose Eros developed our inaugural syllabus, taking our community of staff, board members, donors, and artists deeper into the curatorial lens behind this year’s issue of SKEW.

Finally, we also released our Black Artist Directory in November, a searchable database to help connect Black artists with more commissions and paid creative work.

Explore Further

The Collective is a loose coalition of innovative, multidisciplinary artists in Los Angeles who share a desire to root our creative lives in experimentation, collaboration, and radical empathy with one another. Through the Collective’s own organizing, we produce community-building programs for artists and audiences including a residency program, gallery shows, artist workshop series and groups, a mutual aid network, and an annual printed publication and festival.

In January, we surveyed Level Ground artists to help us imagine our future. We planned to launch a new program, the Collective, with a spring potluck—but then, of course, the COVID-19 pandemic arrived. As LA went into lockdown in March, we immediately called over 50 artists in our network to see what their needs were (creative and otherwise), and we quickly built a digital home for the Collective to connect online, share resources and information, and offer assistance to one another. This resulted in the creation of collaborative artistic experiments like #ARTat6ft and Blooming in the Whirlwind.

Just about a year ago, the Level Ground residency selection committee—including Ash Nichols, Brody Albert, Evelyn Quijas, Jamila Dawson, Jeanne Heo, Dr. Keisha McKenzie, and Micah Bournes—finalized their choices for our latest residency cycle, and we had the pleasure of introducing Coffee Kang, gabbah baya, and Emmet Prieto Webster as the 2020 Level Ground artists-in-residence.

Within weeks of starting the 2020 Residency Program, the Los Angeles “Safer at Home” order was issued, forcing us to reconsider how we would approach the coming year. Several changes helped smooth the adjustment. In previous years, the residency shows were held in October as part of a month-long Level Ground Festival. However, prior to the pandemic, a decision had already been made to extend the residency cycle for several more months. This allowed the staff and residents more flexibility as we adjusted to the new COVID reality. 

In many ways, the rhythm of the residency has stayed the same, albeit remote, with monthly meetings, regular studio visits, and fundraising efforts. However, as the residency enters 2021, we are still considering the best means with which to exhibit our residents’ work. While we still plan to display each of the projects within the context of a solo show, what those shows look like is still being molded and will be, in part, shaped by what our world looks like in the next 3-4 months.

We are sure, however, that the work created is extraordinary, from Coffee’s explorations with soap architecture, gabbah baya’s preservation of history and memory through video gamespaces, to Emmet’s contemplation of Chicano teenage life through a multimedia contemplation (and creation) of cultural fantasies and speculative realities.  We are excited to give these works the space they deserve and can’t wait to invite you to explore them with us and celebrate these three incredible artists. 

2020 collective experiments

2020 Resident artists

In 2019, we raised:

• $161,250 from Creative Studio Contracts

• $20,575 from Membership Program

• $15,000 from Major Donors

• $7,500 in Sales (events, publications, etc)

• $18,000 through the Production Incubator

• $0 from grants

And we spent: 

• $15,600 on Collective Programs (SKEW, Residency, etc.) 

• $25,000 on Production Incubator Projects

• $109,000 on Creative Studio Projects and Contractors*

• $53,500 on Staff

• $19,000 on Rend and Admin/Overhead

• $6,000 on Marketing and Development

In 2020, we raised: 

• $76,725 from Creative Studio Contracts

• $20,350 from Membership Program

• $15,000 from Major Donors

• $7,500 in Sales (events, publications, etc)

• $8,800 through the Production Incubator

• $92,870 from COVID Relief Grants

And we spent: 

• $17,200 on Collective Programs (SKEW, Residency, etc.) 

• $5,600 on Production Incubator Projects

• $27,250 on Creative Studio Projects*

• $128,600 on Staff

• $17,400 on Rent and Admin/Overhead

• $6,000 on Marketing and Development

*Due to the new California law AB-5, in 2020, we included payment for artists we hired through our Creative Studio within our Staff expenses, rather than within our Creative Studio expenses.

*The numbers above have been rounded for convenience.

the 2021 Level Ground Board of Directors

THE FIRST COLLECTIVE LEADERSHIP COHORT

Chance Calloway
Level Ground collaborator since 2016

Coffee Kang
2020 Level Ground Resident Artist

Rae Threat
2018 Level Ground Resident Alumni

Tamisha Tyler
Level Ground collaborator and advisor since 2013