Meet The Team

Executive Director

jfeldman@zygotepress.org
216-621-2900 ext 1

In February 2021, Jackie Feldman joined the Zygote team as our new Executive Director. In her two years as ED, she has launched a new Fellowship for artists of Color, engaged the organization in new programmatic partnerships, and shifted the demographic make-up of Zygote to reflect the city of Cleveland. Jackie has over 30 years of experience working in nonprofit management and education. She graduated from Cleveland State University with an MA in English Literature, with a focus on reading across cultures. Her Master’s Thesis explored social fatalism as a trope in classical to contemporary Russian literature. Her work in nonprofit management centered on creating cross-cultural social and practical systems to deliver supportive services and immersive experiences to newly arrived refugees. In this role, she designed the first intensive English as a Second Language program in Ohio that became a model for future community-based immersive language programs. During her years with Cuyahoga Community College, relying on her fluency in the Russian language, Jackie established a cultural exchange program between refugees from Eastern Bloc countries and students of Color that culminated in an annual two-day experiential study of the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC. In the years before she joined Zygote Press, Jackie worked with Council Gardens, a HUD Housing Project, as Director of Development and Community Relations. During her 14-year tenure there, she instituted anti-racist policies, designed community-based programs, and initiated cultural programming such as the Heights Culinary Heritage Contest, and “Writing in the Gardens” - a collection of multicultural personal narratives written by Cleveland Heights residents. In addition to her dedication to education and expanding the reach of nonprofits, Jackie is a fiction writer and supporter of literary arts. She serves on the board of Literary Cleveland as Programming Committee Chair. Having come to the United States from Ukraine as a child, Jackie often touches on themes of immigration and estrangement in her writing. Her short fiction appears in Pithead Chapel Literary Journal, Coffin Bell Journal, and Novel Noctule Magazine. She continues to write fiction and creative nonfiction, and uplift all facets of the arts in her daily life.

Gallery Coordinator

scout@zygotepress.org
216-621-2900 ext 3

Scout Bach is an African-American interdisciplinary artist whose work primarily consists of playful portrayals of figures and thrown stoneware bodies. Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, particularly hailed from Coventry in Cleveland Heights. They graduated from Cleveland School of the Arts (2022), alongside internships at arts organizations including the School of the New York Times, Newbridge, The Cleveland Print Room, Terravista Studios, and Zygote Press. 

Scout’s work reflects their interest in the philosophy of selfhood. Constantly contrasting what is thought and what is real. Inner versus external identity, healing the inner child, and exploring the self. Heavily inspired by early 2000s cartoons in their likeness and color story. As well as, Kevin Snipes and his study of otherness and human behavior. Sound and music also play a role in the inspiration behind Scout’s work. Riot Grrrl was a subcultural movement in the 1990s, which they attribute to their grit, substance, and femme themes. Scout urges their audience to start a conversation and, above all, question their surroundings.

Print Shop & Residency Manager

michael@zygotepress.org
216-621-2900 ext 2

Michael Whitehead is a Printmaker/Artist and educator from rural central Ohio. He received a BFA in Printmaking from Ohio University and an MFA in Printmaking from Louisiana State University. Michael’s current body of work is centered around the severe, surreal and sublime elements found in the utilitarian architecture of industrial America.

His meticulous drawings, etchings, lithographs, and woodcuts juxtapose architectural elements from disparate industrial sites to create new ruinous monuments to American progress and power.For Michael, these “Power Structures” serve as an examination of the ruined promises of the industrial revolution.

Michael has a passion for print history, print education, and print advocacy. As an educator, he strives to create an accessible, equitable, and democratic environment for students of print. He brings that same perspective to his work at Zygote Press. Print must play a vital role in our ongoing conversation about Fine Art in the post digital era.

In addition to his role as Print Shop & Residency Manager, Michael has worked as an adjunct professor of printmaking and foundations studies for Cleveland State University and Kent State University.

michaelwhiteheadprints.com