Balance PointStudiosGive

About

Three years old.
Twenty-five
years deep.

Balance Point Studios is a nonprofit cultural and educational studio on Lee Road, working across Cleveland's southeast side, developing artists as thinkers, creators, and leaders. The 501(c)(3) dates from 2023. The practice behind it is a quarter-century older.

Teenagers seated on white folding chairs in a bright studio with tall windows, listening to a reading.

Mission

Balance Point Studios seeks to make, teach, and share art to unlock greatness, and challenge curious and creative minds to express themselves freely.

Vision

“Our vision is to see people become themselves so they can discover their purpose, focus, and move toward a fulfilling life.”

Where we are3558 Lee Road, Shaker Heights, Ohio — with studios running out into Mt. Pleasant, Kinsman, and partner schools across Greater Cleveland.
Who we serveYoung people ages 8 to 25, and adult artists in UnCut. More than 400 so far. Every studio is free to the young people in it.
What makes it workWe start from what young people already love — bikes, cameras, clothes, their own language — and build the discipline of finishing something around it.

Who we serve

Committed to Black youth on the southeast side.

Open to everyone who shares the mission.

Balance Point Studios is committed to serving underserved Black youth and young adults by creating culturally responsive, artist-led spaces where creativity, self-expression, and personal growth can thrive — while welcoming all individuals who share in that mission. We primarily serve the southeast side of Cleveland, OH.

The talent on the southeast side has never been the problem. What has been missing is the room: real tools, working artists, and adults who treat where a young person comes from as the starting point, not the obstacle.

Four young people standing together in the atrium of the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Our work centers young people and emerging creatives by providing environments where they can:

  • Discover and express their authentic voices
  • Explore identity, culture, and personal experience through creative practice
  • Build confidence, resilience, and self-awareness
  • Develop artistic skills alongside personal growth
  • Connect with mentors, peers, and supportive creative communities
  • Envision meaningful futures as artists, leaders, and changemakers

Our values

Five things we hold
young people to —
and ourselves.

CreativityMaking is the method, not the reward. Every studio ends in something that exists: a poem, a print, a photograph, a film.
AccountabilityCritique is real, deadlines are real, and the work is shown to people outside the room.
TruthYoung people are asked to write and photograph what is actually in front of them — including the parts of Cleveland that rarely get looked at closely.
ImaginationA wall becomes a poem. A wheelie becomes a film. A t-shirt becomes a business.
Personal growthThe art is the vehicle. The purpose is a person who knows what they can hold.

Leadership

The founders

50+ years of combined experience.

Portrait of Ali Black, co-founder of Balance Point Studios.

Ali Black

Co-founder · Writer & educator

Ali Black is a writer from Cleveland, Ohio, with more than 25 years of experience working with young people. Her background includes the Aspire Program at Hathaway Brown School, Boys & Girls Clubs of Northeast Ohio, West Side Community House, and the Center for Arts-Inspired Learning. She is a published poet and was a finalist for the 2021 Ohioana Book Award.

If It Heals At All — Jacar Press, 2020 We Look Better Alive — Burnside Review Press, 2025 Published in The Atticus Review, The Offing, and The Adroit Journal
Portrait of Donald Black, Jr., co-founder of Balance Point Studios.

Donald Black, Jr.

Co-founder · Photographer & muralist

Donald Black, Jr. is an award-winning photographer and muralist who has been making work since 2008, with over 25 years of arts education experience. He has worked with NewBridge Cleveland, Cleveland Metropolitan School District, and the Cleveland Print Room, and has lectured at the Cleveland Institute of Art and other institutions. His murals anchor the Poetry Ride Out route through Mt. Pleasant and Kinsman.

Artist, speaker, and educator Photography and murals pictured throughout this site

We believe creativity is not simply something people do — it is something that helps people understand who they are.

If that's the work you fund, teach alongside, or want in your school — start here.

Get involved →