With the Help of Community Support, 5 Points Gallery is Here to Stay!

In the coming months, 5 Points will unveil another edition of its annual “This is America” exhibition, featuring all Black and Brown artists and their unique perspectives around lived experience in this country.

by

Her Story

Fatima Laster, owner and curator of 5 Points Gallery + Studios (3514 N. Port Washington Ave.), got the phrase “It took a village” engraved in concrete. The Milwaukee community recently mobilized to help save the beloved gallery, artist studio and cultural hub from foreclosure—something that Laster has endless gratitude for. “It really showed me how large my community is. Everyone knows that this space is theirs too.”

Opened in 2018, 5 Points Gallery centers the voices of BIPOC artists and other marginalized identities with affordable artist residencies and work studios while featuring a gift shop and shared commercial kitchen. Its website describes the space as “a hearth for exploration, collaboration, professional development, and business expansion in the visual, culinary and varying art genres.”

Laster grew up in the 5 Points neighborhood, right around the corner from the gallery, in fact. A self-taught artist, Laster had been living in Chicago with a career in banking when she began to paint as a way to cope with the stressful, racist work environment. “I found myself staying up literally the whole night just to make art, and I felt accomplished but not tired,” Laster remembers. She eventually decided to combine her business background and creative talents by entering the interior design field.

Overlooked Talent

Upon returning to Milwaukee, Laster opened 5 Points Gallery to serve both her own artistic needs as well as those of fellow BIPOC artists. Prior to the gallery, the building had previously been a funeral home. Laster explains, “This is a space to have the exhibitions that we’ve been excluded from, showcase our talents that exist but are overlooked, and really create a safe space for us to commune, congregate and develop in. It’s an amalgamation of a lot of things.”

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When Laster acquired the building, she financed a five-year commercial loan through the Greater Milwaukee Foundation (GMF). The financial market was quite different at the time, as this was well before both COVID and the Trump administration’s DOGE cuts. “They ultimately gave me a two-year extension after initially saying no,” she notes. “The hope was that by year seven I would be in a better position to refinance.”

Unfortunately, this ended up not being the case; refinancing not an option since many lenders lost funding to do so, plus grants were difficult to come by. “Through these five to seven years, I wasn’t able to make the $260,000 extra to pay off the balloon payment,” Laster laments.

Community Support

Out of options, Laster made a public call for community support with transparency that the gallery would foreclose if they did not come up with funds. “That was a big pill to swallow for me, and I was panicking a bit,” Laster recalls. “I’ve formed a lot of close relationships with the artists behind me, but you want to present as a strong business because of the gentrification and bribes and developers sending solicitations every day, so I was just trying to figure it out before it was too late.”

She continues, “There’s a lot of stories that I protect in this space too; again, people have lived here. We’ve become an integral part of each other’s lives. I’m big on not exploiting, but I had to expose myself and ask for help.”

Laster officially launched a campaign to save 5 Points Gallery last summer culminating with a ten-hour street festival on September 27. “I had always wanted to do a festival like the one we ended up implementing,” Laster mentions. “In the worst-case scenario, this space could be remembered by a huge community event.”

Robust Cultural Bash

With a fast turnaround, Laster and her 5 Points community planned and executed a robust cultural bash of art, music, poetry, food and workshops, complete with a panel discussion, an auction and community activities. For Laster’s first time ever putting together an event like this, she affirms that it was an enormous success. In conjunction with the festival, the gallery also hosted a seven-year anniversary dinner.

“It was all hands-on deck,” Laster remarks. “I couldn’t have done it without everybody who supported, from the back end to our sponsors to people helping with marketing. Whatever people could do, they did. People flew in. It was above what I would ever ask.”

Having previously engaged in anti-gentrification advocacy, Laster notes that the 5 Points community holds tightly onto its dignity, and she reflects on the experience of saving 5 Points Gallery as both inspiring and humbling. “It was what was needed and hopefully sets a good example of community building, outreach and support, and of people advocating for themselves even when the powers have all the money. It made my heart full just that the community showed up and supported more than I could have even imagined.”

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The money raised by the campaign sets an incredible example of a community's drive and determination in protecting an important cultural and community hub. This ultimately appealed to GMF, prompting them to move to restructure and extend Laster’s loan repayment over 20 years, effectively saving 5 Points Gallery from foreclosure. 

“Everyone really rescued me,” Laster says, relieved. To name every person who played a part in saving 5 Points Gallery would be a list of hundreds. However, Laster does cite her blood and chosen families, the gallery’s bountiful local and national artist family, her neighbors, the festival's live artists and performers (Manny Vibez, Kierston Ghaznavi, Rhonda Gatlin-Hayes, Emmitt James, Ammar Nsoroma, JD the Poet, Alea McHatten, Just Becca, Pule Leburu, Erik Salgado, Death is a Business and DJ Turtle Sooup), Rachael Turner of Rosemint Media, Soundmark and The Kraft Productions, and Milwaukee realtor Jess Annabelle as tireless contributors.

Now that the weight is off her shoulders, Laster has started a nonprofit component, Cream City Culture Consortium, in order to acquire more funding for the gallery’s artist residencies. “We’re trying to learn that process and set ourselves up to be more sustainable and introduce new programming. We feel like we’re starting over but from a more secure place.”

5 Points Gallery’s most recent exhibition “We Black In Every Timeline” featured work from staple artists Manny Vibez, Kierston Ghaznavi, Turtle Sooup and Warren Harrington, exploring unapologetic Black existence with a surrealist edge, bridging diasporic representations with Afro-futurist identities.

In the coming months, 5 Points will unveil another edition of its annual “This is America” exhibition, featuring all Black and Brown artists and their unique perspectives around lived experience in this country. Laster describes the series, “It’s very open-ended because our narratives are not monolithic. We don’t like to be pigeon-holed. Our stories are nuanced.” 

Laster contends that the art and music festival may become an annual event as well. Folks may continue supporting 5 Points Gallery by way of monetary donations.