Nic Cha Kim

Nic Cha Kim is a documentary filmmaker, reporter, playwright and activist. Nic Cha Kim's interest in art began at Berkeley where he majored in English, played tuba for the UC Concert Band, and worked as the Poetry & Fiction Editor for Slant Magazine -- the campus Asian Pacific American magazine. His first play, A Taste of Home, was produced at the Berkeley Community Theatre as part of the 1996 KSA Culture Show. After college, Nic moved to Los Angeles and joined the David Henry Hwang Writers Institute at the East West Players. Nic directs and produces documentaries for public television, curates video art, and edits the Niche.LA Video Art Blog featured in the Tumblr Art Spotlight. His plays A Taste of Home, Trapezoid, RE:verse, Rise Up!, and Like Yesterday have been produced for the stage. Best known as the Founder of Gallery Row, a creative district in Downtown Los Angeles, Nic wrote and presented a proposal to create a gallery district called Gallery Row through parts of Skid Row, Historic Core, and Fashion District. On July 23, 2003, LA City Council voted unanimously to approve the Gallery Row proposal (Council File Index: 03-1571) which prompted Nic to form Gallery Row Organization, an economic development nonprofit with a mission to create a thriving, pedestrian-friendly, and culturally abundant urban neighborhood. Since unveiling, Gallery Row grew from 3 to almost 40 art galleries, museums, and public art installations and in 2005, Gallery Row Organization co-sponsored the Downtown Art Walk which now regularly attracts 30,000 visitors every month. Nic works as a documentary filmmaker for KCET's transmedia series Artbound and reporter for KCET's award-winning weekly news series, SoCal Connected.