Margery Goldberg
Founder, Zenith GalleryMargery Goldberg has contributed to the cultural fabric of Washington for over five decades as an entrepreneur, gallery owner, activist, artist, and mentor to hundreds of other artists. In March 2010, she was twice recognized for her longstanding commitment to the arts community with the prestigious Mayor’s Arts Award in Excellence in Service to the Arts and Ward 4’s Exceptional Woman in the Arts Award for Outstanding Work in the Entrepreneurial Arts, awarded by Councilwoman Muriel Bowser.
Goldberg founded Zenith Gallery in 1978 and Zenith Square, a 50,000 square-foot community of 50 artist studios to serve as an affordable haven for artists to work, live, show their work and support each other. Under Goldberg’s leadership, Zenith Square was an incubator and launching pad for many now-known artists and organizations, including Liz Lerman’s Dance Exchange, Joy Zinoman’ Studio Theatre. Under Goldberg, the gallery and complex located at Rhode Island Avenue NW near 14th Street sparked a renaissance in the neighborhood ravaged by riots 10 years prior. When Zenith Square closed due to a zoning dispute, Goldberg moved Zenith Gallery to Seventh Street NW, where she again helped revitalize a run-down area, attracting other galleries and retail, and advocating for the MCI Center. One of Washington’s finest contemporary galleries, Zenith, moved the gallery to her home in DC in 2009, where it continues to offer acquisition, consulting and commissioning services via an online gallery, a salon gallery with regular hours, and residential and office visits. Goldberg also curates and manages art exhibitions around Washington and beyond.
Throughout the years, Goldberg has embraced and promoted art as a societal tool and, in 2000, she founded Zenith Community Arts Foundation (ZCAF), a non-profit 501(c)(3), dedicated to fostering alliances between artists, businesses and other non-profits to benefit our community and to touch diverse residents through arts programming. Among ZCAF projects is the annual Food Glorious Food Calendar and associated art show and fundraiser, which have raised more than $110,000 for the Capital Area Food Bank in less than five years, while providing media exposure, opportunities and more than $95,000 in revenue for participating artists. Other projects have included the unveiling of the privately held Freedom Place Collection at Zenith Gallery in 2007, featuring 53 never-seen works by prominent artists Romare Bearden, Benny Andrews, Alma Thomas, Richard Yarde and Robert Freeman, which ZCAF placed at Meridian House International during Black History Month where it was one of their most attended exhibits ever and the centerpiece of the Black Student Fund Gala. Today, ACAF manages and tours the exhibition nationally.
Goldberg’s service to the arts also includes membership on the DC Agenda/Downtown Arts Development Task Force (1998 and 2007); six years as a commissioner of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (1992-1997), two years as treasurer of its executive committee; and co-founding in 1980 of the Arts and Entertainment News Service, which videotaped and documented more than 30 arts, music and cultural events. Today, those videos serve as an archive of the Washington art scene, and over the years Goldberg has continued to document shows at Zenith Gallery.
As a curator, her credits include 550+ exhibits, and installations in area government and office buildings. And, as an artist, she has created over 300 pieces of sculpted furniture and neon, mentored artists in the same media and shown Washington at its best, participating in 40 shows in 13 U.S. cities and as one of eight Washington women artists featured in a film by Geraldine Wurtzberg funded by the National Endowment for the Arts in 1975.
Goldberg is an active member in the Committee to Rebuild Carter Barron Amphitheater, DCBIA DC Business Industries Association, DC Chamber of Commerce, and Washington Sculptors Group.