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Turning a Childhood Home into a Community Space for Black Art Making

by Amy "frankie" Felegy

A group of people standing and posing in front of a white home.
Photo Credit: Project Kindred
High school students visit Old North Milwaukee's THE CR8TV House in February. "Building a place for belonging is the heartbeat of what THE CR8TV HOUSE is," founder Symphony Swan Zawadi says.

Meet THE CR8TV HOUSE, a Wisconsin refuge of reclamation, artistry, and cultural storytelling.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is home to over 200,000 Black residents—the largest racial demographic in the city.

“With that statistic alone, there are not a lot of arts institutions that really cater to this demographic of folks without it feeling transactional. And that was a huge problem for me,” artist Symphony Swan Zawadi says.  

Her 1,000-square foot solution was THE CR8TV HOUSE in Old North Milwaukee, a neighborhood Swan Zawadi says has long been divested in.  

The two-bedroom, century-old home she grew up in is now a volunteer-run arts and community space. Swan Zawadi founded THE CR8TV HOUSE (pronounced creative) in 2023.

A woman with dark skin tone speaking and gesturing during a presentation to a crowd.
Photo Credit: Symphony Swan Zawadi
THE CR8TV HOUSE curator Mia Rimmer talks to local design graduate students last summer at the house, a space for learning, sharing, and documenting art and culture.

“We’re building and sustaining this place of belonging for marginalized artists in Milwaukee,” Swan Zawadi says. “We’re reimagining what it means to steward and honor and tell our own stories—good, bad, or indifferent, while building this arts institution in the city.” 

Swan Zawadi (with lots of help from the community) repaired the aging house; inside now is an exhibition gallery, artist studio, educational center, and archive. She’s usually got samosas or popcorn ready to share with groups dropping in, a tasty detail in a larger movement to support local students, businesses, and artists of color.  

“Alongside all the work that we do in this space and how important it is in shaping the arts here in Milwaukee, it also is just one of the most comfortable spaces to be in . . . Everything is so generating.”

HANNAH SAMOY, THE CR8TV HOUSE’S (VOLUNTEER) ARCHIVIST
A man with dark skin tone inside a house holding his two smiling daughers.
Photo Credit: THE CR8TV HOUSE Archival Collection via Symphony Swan Zawadi
TJ Swan with young Symphony Swan Zawadi (left) and her sister inside the house that would become THE CR8TV HOUSE. Even then, it was full of art (see Swan Zawadi’s sister holding a film canister and a wardrobe TJ Swan built).

THE CR8TV HOUSE, currently open for events or by appointment, is a career jumping point for youth in north Milwaukee. The space hosts artists in residence and high school interns, puts on workshops, and partners with local universities. They’ve created a high-quality art book and are rebooting a podcast.  

And the need is clear: Upwards of 800 people came to the space in 2025, Swan Zawadi says, and they’ve raised over $40,000 dollars in a grassroots fundraising campaign. 

“We are reimagining what an arts institution can be. And I think that’s really important, as well as possibly maybe even reimagining what it means to honor stories,” she says. 

The nonprofit’s igniting story is of her late father, Anthony “TJ” Swan. A blue-collar worker, he was a maker. The self-taught photographer built a film studio in the attic and a woodshop in the basement; he built wardrobes and picture frames. His collection of CDs, records, and books make up pieces of THE CR8TV HOUSE’s growing Community Archive.

“We had intentions, my sister and I, on clearing it out, throwing all of it away, and selling it, splitting the profits, and moving on,” Swan Zawadi says.

A group of people posing in front of a freshly-built wooden privacy fence.
Photo Credit: Symphony Swan Zawadi
Volunteers—a pillar of THE CR8TV HOUSE—showed up in August 2023 to build and install a new fence for THE CR8TV HOUSE.
A woman with dark skin tone posing next to a large canvas painting indoors.
Photo Credit: Terrance Sims
THE CR8TV HOUSE founder Symphony Swan Zawadi, inside the gallery space, previously worked as an arts educator, school administrator, and arts non-profit executive.
Artwork inside red frames inside a white, home-like gallery space.
Photo Credit: Rob Randolph
THE CR8TV HOUSE’s inaugural exhibition, Uptown Metamorphosis, in July. Symphony Swan Zawadi says the space creates “a cycle of memory activation.”
Three people around a table wearing white gloves handling photographs.
Photo Credit: Symphony Swan Zawadi
Volunteers carefully archive family photos at THE CR8TV HOUSE. “Our theme this year is ‘we are the archives in between the lines,'” Symphony Swan Zawadi says. “And so yes, we have the archive, but how do we go deeper?”
A black and white scene of a room filled with photo developing equipment.
Photo Credit: THE CR8TV House Archival Collection
TJ Swan’s self-built photography studio in the 1980s, now THE CR8TV HOUSE’s archival space. “We’re still trying to catalog and make sense of the things that were left behind,” Symphony Swan Zawadi says. “The objects we hold have meaning. And what do we do when we pause for a moment to really remember that?”
Three women with dark skin smiling and holding photos.
Photo Credit: Symphony Swan Zawadi
THE CR8TV HOUSE founder Symphony Swan Zawadi hosting a pop-up digitization workshop.

But reclaiming that home—already a place of artmaking and place, had to happen. Her dad told her so in her dreams, she shares. And the community helped bring the vision to life.

“What got us here was with a little seed of faith of saying, ‘I have this crazy idea,’” Swan Zawadi says. “I think it’s too much to ask for someone to help clean out someone’s house that they lived in for 40 years. But people show up . . . to say yes.”