about

Catalyst – an agent that provokes or speeds significant change or action

Muse – a source of inspiration

Founded by Kim Zanti in 2019, Catalyst Muse exists to tells stories. Whether initiated internally or contracted by a client, our storytelling process is propelled by research, discovery, inquiry, and narrative skill. Catalyst Muse maintains a multi-talented, international group of collaborators in film, music, and literary arts who bring their passion, skill, and ideas to the process.

Catalyst Muse Services

  • story development (variety of formats)
  • writing (scripts, proposals, presentations)
  • editing (scripts, proposals, presentations)
  • producing (field, line, funding)

Who We Are

Kim Zanti
Principal

Marti D. Johnston
Collaborator
Joe Gutesha
Collaborator
Kim Zanti
Principal
Marti D. Johnston Collaborator
Joe Gutesha Collaborator

Advisers

Gabrielle Arenge, Doctoral Researcher, Cambridge, UK

Karen Burkett, Entrepreneur, Ellicott City, MD

Rebecca Catterall, Artist Educator, Ventura, CA

Prescott Frost, Regenerative Farmer, Itri, IT

Oleg Kagan, Author & Librarian, Los Angeles, CA

Dr. Sherry J. Kerr, Process Drama Specialist, Shreveport, LA

Christine McGrath, Website & Technical Designer, Los Angeles, CA

Kim Zanti

Kim is a documentarian, creativity specialist, and storyteller. She honed her storytelling skills as a grant writer for Los Angeles arts and culture origizations, before pivoting into creativity research. As Associate Director at the Centers for Research on Creativity with Dr. James Catterall, she studied creativity in learning environments in schools and afterschool programs throughout the nation. Kim holds a MS degree from State University of New York at Buffalo in Creativity Studies. As a volunteer in her Santa Monica Mountain community, she co-founded Topanga Authors’ Group and the Transport Literary Festival.

Marti D. Johnston

With more than 30 years as a performing artist, dance maker, producer, writer, educator, and grassroots community activist, Marti has served as a conduit within her communities. Most recently for Catalyst Muse, she served as creative spark and executive producer on Beyond the Bridge.

The bridge is a central metaphor in Marti ‘s professional work. She builds bridges that cultivate humans and small non-profit organizations in the arts, education, and conservation. She is a certified yoga instructor and grant specialist with a full complement of administrative, artistic, and programmatic skills. She holds an MFA from Mills College in choreography and lives in Phoenix, Oregon.

Joe Gutesha

Joe is a student of the world. Most recently for Catalyst Muse, Joe served as interpreter, field producer, and assistant director on the short documentary Beyond the Bridge. He writes for New York magazine’s food and restaurant blog Grub Street and keeps a blog called Jlaudio’s Extraordinary Café. He reaches across real and perceived boundaries to make meaningful connections by speaking six languages and teaching in non-native tongues . Born and raised in Topanga, California, Joe lives in Brooklyn, New York and envisions Japan as his next home.

“None of us are perfect, but all over the place in every community and field of endeavor, there are people who are working generatively with the challenges before us; meeting them, rising to their best human capacities — at least on their good days — and creating new possibilities and realities. They’re not publicized, they’re not investigated, but that landscape is as real and important as that landscape of everything we can point out as failing and corrupt and catastrophic. “

~ Krista Tippett
journalist, author, and entrepreneur