About

Symphony D. Swan-Zawadi (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice weaves visual storytelling, community dialogue, and archival exploration to examine the beautifully complex layers of family, memory, and place. Drawing deeply from her lived experience as a Black woman, mother, educator, and administrator, Symphony creates collaborative art-making spaces where storytelling, meaningful conversation, and community-building are not only outcomes but essential parts of the creative process.

 

Through ongoing research, studio practice, and dialogue, Symphony has come to understand storytelling as a powerful method of relational learning—one that invites us to inhabit each other’s imaginations and witness one another’s truths. She sees stories—and the characters within them—as vital bridges connecting past experiences to future possibilities, offering pathways toward both personal and collective healing.

 

At the heart of Symphony’s practice is the use of archival photographs, family heirlooms, and found images as materials for deep inquiry. She uses collage-making and visual storytelling as ways to physically and symbolically layer histories, create new narratives, and reimagine connections across generations. Her work moves fluidly between past, present, and future—interrogating memory, activating imagination, and making visible the often-invisible threads that bind us.

 

Symphony’s current body of work emerges from a deeply personal process of grief, remembrance, and transformation following the passing of both her mother and father within a two-year span. In navigating this profound loss, she turned to family photographs and memory as a way to hold onto, question, and expand her lineage’s stories. Through visual exercises rooted in archival materials, she engages in intimate conversations with memory, reactivating stories once buried and making space for healing across time.

 

This deeply personal work became the seed for THE CR8TV HOUSE—a radical, community-centered art space Symphony founded to honor the power of storytelling, imagination, and collective memory. Located in her family’s 98-year-old home, THE CR8TV HOUSE reimagines domestic space as a site for Black and Brown artists to gather, create, heal, and dream together. Just as her art practice layers memory and possibility, THE CR8TV HOUSE is a living collage—where the past is honored, the present is nurtured, and the future is imagined boldly.

​​

Symphony is also 2023 Gener8tor Art Fellowship recipient and currently serves as a Board Trustee for the Milwaukee Art Museum. She was named the 2023 Shepherd Express Milwaukeean of the Year and has been recognized as a notable arts and culture leader in Milwaukee by BizTimes Milwaukee.

​

​In all her work, Symphony affirms that remembering—and re-storying—is not just an artistic act, but a radical and communal one: a way to heal, connect, and build the futures we deserve.