Zomics: Workshops and a Festival of Zines
The Rancho Cucamonga Community & Arts Foundation (RCCAAF) is excited to highlight one of its 2024–2025 Community Arts Grant recipients, The Arts Area. This organization supports the creative industry by offering fiscal sponsorship, professional development, resource support, and civic advocacy. Their mission is to foster economic sustainability and equitable access to the arts in the Inland Empire. This year, The Arts Area embraced the spirit of creativity, Do-it-Yourself, and grassroots storytelling through their project, which includes several zine workshops, and an event called Zomics: A Festival of Zines and Comics.
Funded by RCCAAF’s Community Arts Grant, an initiative designed to support transformative arts programs, Zomics celebrated the zine as a powerful form of personal, political, and artistic expression. The festival and its accompanying workshop series brought together artists, students, and community members for an exploration of independent publishing.
The project was launched at the Wignall Museum of Contemporary Art at Chaffey College, beginning with an experimental bookbinding workshop. Over several weeks, participants took part in a variety of hands-on classes, including A(rt) to Z(ines): The Activists’ Alphabet, Printmaking for Zines, Drawing for Zines, Cyanotype for Zines, Sketchbook-Making, and Zine Making. These workshops were led by a talented group of teaching artists: Rebecca Ustrell, Neil Watkins, Melanie Walden, Daniel Whitfield, Brodie Albert, and Chiquita Dineyanti. Dineyanti’s Zine-making workshop served as the energetic finale of the workshop series.
A total of 100 community members participated in the workshops, showcasing strong local interest and enthusiasm. The experience culminated in Zomics: A Festival of Zines and Comics, where the public had the opportunity to meet and support over 20 local artists and zine distributors. Attendees browsed, purchased, and read a range of zines and comics, all while enjoying live music from DJ Abstractmachine, live screen printing by artist Duan Kellum, and light refreshments.
Through hands-on learning, artist engagement, and celebration, Zomics empowered individuals to create and share their stories while strengthening the region’s cultural fabric with every sketch, stitch, and print.
Zomics was made possible through the collaborative efforts of The Arts Area, RCCAAF, the Wignall Museum of Contemporary Art, Curious Publishing, and Chaffey College, with additional funding from California Humanities.
Photo Credits: Photos courtesy of The Arts Area
About The Arts Area:
The Arts Area provides fiscal sponsorship, professional development, resource support, and civic advocacy to develop and support economic sustainability and equitable access in the creative industries of San Bernardino, Riverside, and East Los Angeles Counties. To learn more, visit: theartsarea.org
