In 1999 Stephanie Ellis-Smith performed a cultural experiment.

For a long time she had been noticing that Seattle was lacking an African-American arts scene. She saw interest, and talent, but no action.

“Back then there didn’t seem to be any black arts outside of February, black history month,” said Ellis-Smith. “I saw all these performers across the country and thought, ‘They need to come to Seattle.’ People are hungry for this stuff here.”

She founded the Central District Art Forum that year, and kicked it off with a dipping one toe in the water with a three year trial run, checking for obstacles.

“I wanted to see if there was a reason it just hasn’t been there,” she said.

But there weren’t any, and people ate it up.

“People had a clear idea of what they wanted to see,” said Ellis-Smith. “They had very specific suggestions and they have helped shape where we are today.”

For the past ten years the CD Art Forum has been growing. They have been connecting the Seattle arts scene to local and national artists. They have been fulfilling their mission to challenge assumptions about the black community through their support of speakers and performing artists.

Locally, they support African-American performing artists and they hold discussion panels oan subjects important to the African-American community, many of which seat high school students as panelists.

Last year they held the first ever Black Sci-Fi Festival and held a Sci-Fi writing workshop specifically at Garfield. The participants published a magazine called Read On and created a corresponding online mag.

“All our programs are intergenerational,” said Program Director Denee McCloud. “A lot of organizations try to separate, but we don’t see why youth can’t be part of the discussion.”

In the vein of youth involvement, they bring in an artist from outside of the state three times a year, and after an initial performance the artist does a workshop specifically for teens.

The first artist of this year, is jazz musician Guillermo E. Brown, traditionally a jazz musician, is breaking out in a mix of music, video and genre in his performance, “Shuffle Mode”, named after the iPod setting. In this Seattle premiere he moves to a new level in his musical career and explores his influences in music.

His premiere performance will be on January 30th at the Broadway Theater. The next day he will head up a workshop at Seattle Art Museum where teens will create their own music, clapping and stomping to create beats.

Through these programs the CD Art Forum has earned respect within the art community, but pushing out further has been hard without their own theater space.

“We don’t have our own home, so it’s hard for people to know about us,” said Ellis-Smith.

They’re looking at purchasing the historic Washington Hall in the Central District and the opportunities it would give the organization.

“We would stand out so much more and be able to show what we can do,” said Ellis-Smith. “We would be able to bring the resources of artists from around the country in to the community. We could be more spontaneous, have gatherings, readings. Local events with folks, parties,; we love to party.”

But while Washington Hall may be the dream, according to Ellis-Smith, they are most focused on staying “solid and solvent” through the economic downturn. Even though they surpassed their fundraising goal for the year, they’ve watched other organizations begin to crumble and finding a new space may have to sit on the back burner.

Another concern for the future is staying consistent through a leadership change when Ellis-Smith steps down this June after ten years leading the CD Art Forum. Aside from wanting to spend time with her kids, Ellis-Smith says she’s stepping down to allow a change in style.

“It’s been along time,” she said. “I see an opportunity in the 10th year. It’s a good time for founders members to move on. It’s time to bring in a new leader to take it to the next level.”