Junior High is a non-profit artist space as well as an exercise in creativity, compassion, and conscious living. Our calendar is known to be bursting with a wide variety of programs including exhibitions, performances, skills-based workshops, and community gatherings.
Our History…
In 2015, Junior High was dreamed up by one person as an attempt to find similarly minded artists within Los Angeles. We wanted a space safe for creatives, community-building, and all of our queer, feminist visions. The name? Our founder wanted to transform and reclaim the inner middle schooler that lives within all of us by cultivating a place where artists could develop their practices, and audiences could rock out in peace. That kernel of hope flourished from internet fundraising into a physical space in April 2016. Nine years after our doors first opened in Hollywood, we’ve grown our team, moved to Glendale, and developed nearly a decade of experience organizing live events that prioritize the expression and safety of LGBTQIA+ people living in Southern California.
Junior High, the artist haven boldly claiming space in conservative Glendale, is not a school nor is it an environment designed exclusively for the youth. Instead, Junior High is designed to be a place for those of us who suppressed our identities and struggled to find our people during our schooling years. The leadership team steering Junior High is not perpetuating early-2000s mainstream culture of homophobia, thinly veiled disordered eating habits, and cozying up to the boys by acting “not like the other girls.” Junior High is not for you if you think that it’s too cringe to try or you’re too cool to hyperfocus on the innately human touches that sets handicrafts apart from Artificial Intelligence.
At Junior High we say that we exist for those of us going through a second puberty — a reference to how trans community members feel while in the early stages of hormone replacement therapy, as well as the album Puberty 2 by bisexual musician Mitski. Junior High is the place for the trans women who want to wear a dress outside her bedroom without fear of getting laughed at or shunned. Junior High is the place for men who want to hold hands with their boyfriend at the show. Junior High is the place for the person who doesn’t quite know how to explain pronouns to their parents, but wants to try “they” pronouns because they know our staff won’t make someone justify how they feel inside. However, while Junior High prioritizes the safety and expression of the LGBTQIA+ communities, we are also welcoming to all radically-minded creatives in and around Southern California who align with our mission. What matters most is attracting artists at all stages of their practice and career to stimulate their creativity at Junior High.
Our Present…
Today, Junior High is an incubator for a diverse array of liberation-minded artists to experiment and expand on ideas of justice. Junior High operates around the frameworks established by thought leaders who came before us, including:
Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center by bell hooks; Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds by adrienne maree brown; Are Prisons Obsolete by Angela Davis; Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color by Kimberle Crenshaw; Women, Race, and Class by Angela Davis; Ways of Seeing by John Berger; Poetry Is Not A Luxury by Audre Lorde.
To bring these ideas into practice, Junior High is committed to a strategic process that bakes reflection and accountability into every part of the organization. This extends through the executive level, leadership team, hiring practices, and booking procedures, which culminates in the strategic cycle that keeps Junior High operational and thriving!
In a critical era for reversing legal protections for the most vulnerable populations, Junior High will contribute to the liberation of marginalized people through facilitating arts programming. We have seen firsthand through our 10 years of event organizing the power that is magnified when marginalized people take ownership of their narratives through arts expression. they can transmute ideas to physical objects like ceramic sculpture, collages, or illustrations. When Junior High platforms the artworks of marginalized people in the gallery, this illuminates a unique viewpoint within larger shared experiences — both inside a singular marginalized community, and as it intersects with many other perspectives.
Regardless of how severely the state denies our shared humanity, art is what makes us people. Junior High will always be a space for the people who need this most of all.
Statement of Intent…
Through the creation and application of this Strategic Cycle, Junior High is setting up the basis and expectation for accountability measures in a workplace and community center that hires and platforms individuals of marginalized communities whose safety and protections have been historically ignored.
Junior High’s commitments to the community and patrons who enter our doors for as long as we remain operational:
Junior High will
Aid artists and artists’ welfare through respectful conduct and financial support.
Provide outlets for stress management, existential anxiety, and general lack of control through artistic expression.
Aid artists’ creativity and curiosity by providing skills-building opportunities and the ability to be experimental and playful within an artistic practice.
Prioritize safety by
Ensuring staff maintain active First Aid and CPR certification
Ensuring staff are adept at conflict de-escalation tactics
Maintaining a valid First Aid kit
Maintaining valid harm reduction tools (including fentanyl test strips and narcan)
Preserving, utilizing, and updating the Community Agreements as a guideline for respectful conduct
Providing free PPE and ear plugs
Maintaining a clean, tidy, and hygienic environment (including ensuring there are safe, 4’ wide walkways to the exits at all times)
Program events in the calendar that are representative of the community who attends the events, as well as the community we wish to attract, the neighborhood we exist within, and the world we live in.
Remain independent from city, county, and state policing when experiencing conflict. Junior High will remain independent from ICE and other predatory government services that endanger the sanctity of a peaceful life.
Make the world a more beautiful and tolerant place to live in.