On Saturday, August 2, 2025, the Wende Museum inaugurated its first-ever Wende Zine Fest, transforming its campus into a vibrant hub for DIY publishing, illustration, collage art, and hands-on creativity. From 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., more than 40 independent artists and zinesters from across Los Angeles displayed handcrafted publications amid workshops, figure-drawing sessions, and engaging talks. The free event attracted a diverse crowd of art lovers, students, and community members eager to connect with the underground print culture scene in L.A.
Festival programming blended educational sessions with creative explorations. Highlights included a “Garbage Zines” workshop hosted by The Casual Creative, figure-drawing led by Aslan Scardina of Heavy Manners Library, and a “Sharing Fandom through Zines” panel featuring Genesis Perez and Iván Salinas of Beyond Baroque Literary Arts. The Los Angeles Public Library co-presented a pop‑up zine-making workshop and mini zine library, and a self‑expression workshop titled “Mi Corazón” was led by Renee Roldan of LODO Zine.
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Attendees had the opportunity not only to purchase or swap zines, but also to draw live models, flip through curated samizdat publications, and engage with creative peers. The festival’s open format encouraged conversation between established and emerging artists, with visitors roaming between booths, sitting in on panels, or sketching in the shaded outdoor plaza.
The timing of the festival aligned strategically with the museum’s “Counter/Surveillance: Control, Privacy, Agency” exhibition currently on view through October 19, which includes samizdat materials—self-published underground magazines and pamphlets from Eastern Bloc countries. Hosting a zine fest at this moment underscores the museum’s ongoing mission to link historical expression to contemporary grassroots creativity.
The Wende Museum, founded in 2002 and led by historian and curator Justinian Jampol, holds one of the world’s largest collections of Cold War‑era artifacts and printed ephemera. Located in a repurposed 1949 National Guard Armory on Culver Boulevard, the museum includes the recently opened Glorya Kaufman Community Center, which offers free programming to the public. Zine Fest’s debut is consistent with its expanding community-oriented identity.
The event reflects a broader cultural momentum in Los Angeles: while major institutions like the Broad have hosted gatherings such as L.A. Zine Fest, Zine Fest’s grassroots ethos, focus on storytelling, and ties to Cold War underground publishing offer a distinctive platform. Wende Zine Fest contributes to a growing ecosystem of print culture in the city that champions radical, personal expression outside mainstream publishing.
Organizers emphasized inclusivity and community building. Partnering with groups like the West LA Branch Public Library, Heavy Manners Library, CRASH Space, and Kona Ice, the event was designed to be accessible and welcoming—open to families, students, and seasoned zinesters alike. The free admission policy helped remove barriers to participation.
Local exhibitors ranged from collage artists exploring identity and memory, to narrative zinesters sharing personal essays, to fan‑community creators experimenting with graphic storytelling. Visitors could shop unique works that riffed on politics, climate justice, queer culture, fandom, and creativity as resistance. The mix of vendors reflected the Wende’s mission to elevate underrepresented voices and connect archives and activism.
The intersection of licensed archival materials—such as samizdat publications from Eastern Europe—and contemporary zine culture provided rich food for conversation. Panels prompted reflections on how marginalized groups historically used self-publishing to resist censorship, and how modern independent creators continue that tradition in new forms.
In closing remarks at the event, staff noted that the Wende Zine Fest was conceived as an ongoing annual event designed to amplify L.A.’s underground print community and bring new audiences into contact with the museum’s archives. While the museum’s exhibitions may evolve, the zine fest aims to become a stable fixture—drawing community-driven creativity to the nexus of art, history, and activism.
The debut of Wende Zine Fest marks a significant moment for both the museum and Los Angeles’s self-publishing culture. By merging archival history with hands-on, DIY art-making, the festival not only celebrated the personal and political power of zines but also repositioned the Wende Museum as a forward-looking center of grassroots cultural exchange.
