Art for a More Peaceful and Just Community is a collaborative project with community organizations, schools, libraries, and government agencies, to create avenues of understanding and commonality to visibly demonstrate the community stands together for kindness, compassion and against intolerance and hate, and is committed to grow and nurture, personal resilience and community support systems, and how the Arts may strengthen them.  

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Background

Pacifica, translated from Spanish to English, means peaceful and/or peace-loving.  Many activists in the community and city-leaders have for years stood up and spoken out for compassion and peace.  It was incredibly disheartening therefore, to have multiple incidents in 2022, show that hate is here on the coastside and rearing its ugly head.  In two separate incidents, rainbow Pride flags flown at an elementary school and high school, were taken down and burned.  At the site of a city program, a classroom was broken into and a doll’s head was left marked with a swastika.  Later in the year, a rock was through the window of the Pacifica Resource Center, the local San Mateo County core service agency providing emergency safety net assistance to the community supporting the unhoused and others in need.  And, the January 2023 shooting in neighboring Half Moon Bay shows how disagreement and misunderstanding can lead to violent  tragedy.         

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Recognizing the role of art as a unique power with the potential to build a more peaceful and just world,  Sanchez Art Center, in collaboration with other community organizations, schools and the library, is developing programming to create avenues of understanding and commonality to visibly demonstrate the community standing up against hate.

 

This project includes a variety of art forms, series and projects to address intolerance, hate and fear, with the intention to foster inclusion, understanding and a peaceful approach to differences. 

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