The Wallace Foundation named the Esperanza Peace & Justice Center as one of 18 organizations in their 2022 arts initiative. The Center is directed by Graciela Sanchéz, ILI Alumni from Year 1. Congratulations!
The organizations in the Wallace arts initiative, launched in spring 2022, are located around the country and span the visual and performing arts fields, media arts, and community-based organizations focused on artistic practice.
Each organization will receive funding to carry out an individual project of their choosing over four years to address various kinds of strategic challenges, using approaches that leverage the organization’s deep connection with its community. Researchers will document this work, as well as the organization’s unique history, with the aim of developing insights about the relationship between community orientation, resilience and relevance.
Esperanza Peace and Justice Center (San Antonio, Texas) is a multidisciplinary, community-based cultural organization with a vision for social change that bridges the divides between communities. Throughout its history, Esperanza Peace and Justice Center has been led by queer Chicanas and has been one of a few organizations to center LGBTQI and feminist voices in both its cultural work and community activism.