Crenshaw Dairy Mart Art

What Crenshaw Dairy Mart Art does

Crenshaw Dairy Mart is a nonprofit arts organization and artist collective founded in February 2020 in Inglewood, California, by artists Patrisse Cullors, alexandre ali reza dorriz, and noé olivas. Operating from a 1965 former dairy mart, the organization centers its work on three pillars — Ancestry, Abolition, and Healing — and delivers programming at the intersection of art, food justice, and social services for Black, Indigenous, and transnational artists and South Los Angeles residents.

Its core offerings include the Abolitionist Pod, a solar-powered geodesic dome housing an autonomously irrigated garden of approximately 1,000 plants sourced from local Black farmers, deployed at both the Crenshaw Dairy Mart site and LA County's Hilda L. Solis Care First Village (an interim housing facility serving 232 beds); the CDM-FAACE Fellowship, a one-year residency awarding each fellow a $100,000 stipend plus healthcare; the annual CDM Film Festival showcasing 19 BIPOC filmmakers; the Abolitionist Toolbox workshop series; Art Supply Kits for Watts, South Central, and Pico-Union youth; and the Care Not Cages relief fund for incarcerated artists. The organization also operates an exhibition/gallery program, the rolling social sculpture 'domingo,' and special projects including Lighting Up the Sky and Black August programming.

The business model is nonprofit and donation-based: tax-deductible contributions flow through fiscal sponsor Fractured Atlas (one-time and monthly recurring), supplemented by foundation grants (Teiger Foundation, an anonymous funder backing the fellowship, Getty/PST for exhibitions), merchandise sales (e.g., a $55 exhibition catalog), and earned-media-driven community engagement. With 7 employees, an Executive Director (Ashley Blakeney), a Program Director, and a network of 10+ partner organizations (MOCA, Dignity and Power Now, Community Services Unlimited, For Freedoms, Justice LA, CURB, Black Image Center, People's Pottery Project, LA County Library, and others), the organization runs primarily as a community-led, event-driven arts and mutual-aid platform anchored in South LA.

Name

Crenshaw Dairy Mart Art

Legal name

Crenshaw Dairy Mart

Website

https://crenshawdairymart.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2020

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Crenshaw Dairy Mart is a nonprofit arts collective in Inglewood, California, operating abolitionist pods, a $100,000-stipend fellowship, film festival, and exhibitions serving Black and transnational artists, BIPOC filmmakers, and South Los Angeles residents at the intersection of art, food justice, and abolitionist praxis.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Inglewood

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others, Supply Chain

Revenue model

1. Donations and Charitable Contributions: Tax-deductible donations through fiscal sponsor Fractured Atlas. Both one-time and monthly recurring donation options available. All support is 100% tax-deductible through the 501(c)(3) fiscal sponsor.
2. Merchandise Sales: Sale of publications and merchandise through the Crenshaw Dairy Mart shop, including the $55 'Free the Land! Free the People!' exhibition catalog.
3. Exhibitions and Public Programs: Free exhibitions and public programming supported by foundation grants (e.g., Teiger Foundation for workshop series, anonymous foundation for fellowship). Programs include fellowships, film festivals, and educational workshops.
4. Artist Fellowship and Residency: CDM-FAACE Fellowship program provides $100,000 stipends and healthcare to Black artists, funded through anonymous foundation and public/private grants.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Crenshaw Dairy Mart is a nonprofit artist collective and community arts organization that delivers exhibitions, fellowships, workshops, film festivals, and community mutual-aid programs rooted in an abolitionist framework. Its signature physical offering is the Abolitionist Pod, a solar-powered geodesic dome containing an autonomously irrigated garden of approximately 1,000 plants sourced from local Black farmers, deployed at community and transitional housing sites. It also runs the CDM-FAACE Fellowship (providing $100,000 stipends and healthcare to Black artists) and the annual CDM Film Festival for BIPOC filmmakers.

Product overview

Crenshaw Dairy Mart is an artist collective and art gallery offering a portfolio of programs at the intersection of art, abolition, and community healing. The core offerings include: the Abolitionist Pod (solar-powered geodesic dome gardens for food security), CDM-FAACE Fellowship ($100,000 artist fellowship), CDM Film Festival (BIPOC filmmakers showcase), Abolitionist Toolbox Series (workshop programming), Art Supply Kits (free art supplies distribution), and Care Not Cages (relief fund for incarcerated artists). Additional offerings include the rolling social sculpture 'domingo,' community screenings, exhibitions/gallery space, and special projects like Black August and Lighting Up the Sky. The organization operates as a unified cultural space rather than a modular platform, with all programs amplifying core values of ancestry, healing, and abolition.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• CDM-FAACE: CDM Fellowship for Abolition and the Advancement of the Creative Economy - a one-year fellowship program for artists incorporating abolitionist framework

Products and services

• Abolitionist Pod Modular solar-powered geodesic dome containing an autonomously irrigated community garden of approximately 1,000 fruit and vegetable plants sourced from local Black farmers; serves as a hub for weekly workshops on abolitionist praxis, gardening, food justice, art, and healing, deployed at Crenshaw Dairy Mart and Hilda L. Solis Care First Village.
• CDM-FAACE Fellowship One-year fellowship program for Black artists incorporating artist residency philosophies through an abolitionist framework; fellows receive a $100,000 stipend, healthcare insurance, lectures, workshops, seminars, studio visits, and group critiques culminating in an exhibition.
• CDM Film Festival Annual film festival providing a safe space for BIPOC filmmakers, particularly Black filmmakers from South Central LA and Inglewood, to exhibit documentaries, narrative films, music videos, and works in progress.
• Exhibitions/Gallery Program Rotating art exhibitions and gallery space at the Crenshaw Dairy Mart in Inglewood presenting works by artists at the intersection of art, activism, abolition, and healing; includes community-oriented installations and archival documentation.
• Abolitionist Toolbox Series Workshop series examining local contemporary and historical legacies of Black artists and artists-of-color-founded arts spaces; features intergenerational stewardship, micro-economies, and coalition-building workshops such as weaving, pottery, and community archiving.
• Art Supply Kits Free art supplies and instructional zines with lesson plans covering watercolor, embroidery, drawing, cyanotypes, paper-making, and block printing, distributed to youth in Watts, South Central, and Pico-Union Los Angeles.
• Care Not Cages Relief Fund Mutual aid relief fund and open-call initiative supporting artists and incarcerated artists during COVID-19 economic hardship, distributing cash awards and featuring artworks by affected artists.
• domingo Mobile Social Sculpture Rolling social sculpture built from a 1967 Chevrolet Step-Van repurposed as a mobile space for art and healing, distributing food, art supplies, and hosting collective creativity as a satellite to Crenshaw Dairy Mart programs.
• Community Screenings Film screenings and viewings at Crenshaw Dairy Mart featuring community films, advanced screenings of notable works, and panel discussions with filmmakers and community members.
• CDM Shop (Exhibition Catalog and Merchandise) Online shop selling exhibition catalogs (e.g., $55 'Free the Land! Free the People!' catalog) and Crenshaw Dairy Mart branded merchandise.

Quantifiable outcome

• Abolitionist pod holds approximately 1,000 plants sourced from local Black farmers
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers6 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

16 partnerships are on record, tiered minor, core and major.

• LA County Library - Compton LibraryminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2023Partnership for Pride Month Storytime program and curated LGBTQ-themed book list for all generations. Collaboration aims to support LGBTQ+ youth during increasing violence and legislative backlash.
• Dignity and Power Now (DPN)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2021Participating organization in inaugural programming year for abolitionist pod at Hilda L. Solis Care First Village. DPN is a grassroots organization fighting for the rights of incarcerated people and their families. DPN's Health & Wellness team leads workshops within the pod's four-week curriculum sessions.
• Community Services UnlimitedcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2021Participating organization in abolitionist pod programming. Partner for sourcing plants from local Black farmers. Community organization focused on food justice and community wellness in South LA.
• Huma HousecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2021Participating organization in inaugural programming year for abolitionist pod at Hilda L. Solis Care First Village.
• Creative ActscoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2021Participating organization in inaugural programming year for abolitionist pod at Hilda L. Solis Care First Village.
• Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Geffen ContemporarymajorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2021First abolitionist pod prototype unveiled at MOCA's Geffen Contemporary in May 2021 as part of WE RISE initiative. Partnership placed CDM's work within the institutional art world context.
• For FreedomsmajorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2020Partner in Care Not Cages Open Call and relief fund for artists during COVID-19. For Freedoms is a platform for artists to engage in the civic process.
• Justice LAmajorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2020Partner in Care Not Cages campaign and jury panel member. Grassroots coalition working to stop jail construction and promote alternatives to incarceration.
• Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB)majorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2020Partner in Care Not Cages campaign and jury panel member. Coalition working to reduce prison and jail budgets and redirect funds to community services.
• Summaeverythang Community CentercoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2020Partner in Art Supply Kits distribution and produce boxes during COVID-19 pandemic in South LA and Watts. Community organization focused on food justice.
• The Mistake RoomcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2020Partner for Pray for LA initiative and Art Supply Kits distribution. Supported domingo project and provided resources during COVID-19 response.
• Fractured AtlascoreOthersFiscal sponsor - all donations are 100% tax-deductible through this 501(c)(3) nonprofit arts service organization. Crenshaw Dairy Mart is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas.
• Black Image CenterminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner for community digitization day and archiving workshop as part of Abolitionist Toolbox Series.
• People's Pottery ProjectminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerLead facilitator for beginners pottery workshop as part of Abolitionist Toolbox Series.
• Social Justice Learning Institute (SJLI)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner supporting Pray for LA initiative and domingo project activities.
• Prosperity MarketminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner in community food distribution during Pray for LA and COVID-19 mutual aid efforts.

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• The Mistake Room: Independent contemporary art space in Los Angeles that platforms artists of color and experiments with nontraditional exhibition formats. Direct peer because it shares CDM's model of a small arts organization partnering with artists of color on experimental programming, and was a partner on Pray for LA and Art Supply Kits.
• For Freedoms: Artist-led civic engagement platform co-founded by Hank Willis Thomas and Eric Gottesman. Direct peer because it operates at the intersection of art, civic participation, and progressive social movements, and was an explicit partner of Crenshaw Dairy Mart on the Care Not Cages initiative during COVID-19.
• Recess Activities: Brooklyn-based artist-residency and community-arts organization that produces experimental public programming. Direct peer in operating model: small team, artist-led, mission-driven programming that integrates social justice with experimental contemporary art practice.
• Dignity and Power Now: LA-based grassroots organization fighting for incarcerated people and their families, founded by Patrisse Cullors. Direct peer because it shares CDM's abolitionist orientation and is an active programming partner inside the abolitionist pod at Hilda L. Solis Care First Village.
• Justice LA: LA County coalition working to stop jail construction and reinvest in community-based alternatives, co-founded by Patrisse Cullors. Direct peer because it shares CDM's anti-carceral mission, served as a Care Not Cages jury partner, and benefits from the same Measure R organizing infrastructure.
• Project Row Houses: Houston-based community arts organization that combines artist residencies, exhibitions, and community programming in historically Black neighborhoods. Direct peer because of its parallel model of using art to address social and racial inequity in a specific place, with comparable fellowship and residency programs.

Broad incumbents

• Studio Museum in Harlem: Premier institution dedicated to work by artists of African descent, with the well-known Artist-in-Residence program. Broad incumbent peer because it operates a much larger and longer-running Black-artist fellowship in the same space CDM-FAACE targets, and is a likely benchmark for institutional credibility.
• Hammer Museum: UCLA-affiliated art museum in Los Angeles with deep programming in politically engaged contemporary art. Broad incumbent peer because it shares CDM's Los Angeles ecosystem and audience overlap, and exhibits artists at similar career stages to CDM-FAACE fellows.
• Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Los Angeles: Major LA contemporary art museum that hosted the inaugural abolitionist pod prototype unveiling through the WE RISE initiative in 2021. Broad incumbent peer because it provides institutional infrastructure, programming scale, and curatorial legitimacy that CDM leverages for visibility.

Emerging players

• NXTHVN: New Haven-based arts and social-justice hub operating paid artist fellowships and curatorial programs for emerging Black and Brown creatives. Emerging peer in the same fellowship-and-community-arts niche as CDM-FAACE, competing for the same cohort of early-career artists of color.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat1 record

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/crenshaw-dairy-mart-art

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles7 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Crenshaw Dairy Mart Art