Galería de la Raza – Capital Campaign

Galería de la Raza’s Capital Campaign will serve as the fundraising platform with the goal of securing the long term site that will house Galería de la Raza's Studio 16 for generations to come.

Founded in 1970, Galería de la Raza | Studio 24 is a non-profit dedicated to promoting Xicanx/Latinx art and culture. Our “creative place keeping” ethos is rooted in social inclusion and justice, where community arts are central to navigating the complex intersection of urban development, social inequality, affordable housing, and the historical-cultural legacies of communities of color. To implement our mission, the Galería supports Latinx artists in the visual, literary, media, and performing art fields whose works explore new aesthetic possibilities for socially committed art. 

To this day, the legacy of Galería's founders continues within the broader framework of contemporary society. Galería’s founding values carry on into the next generation’s aspirations to transform the Chicane/Latine community’s social and cultural environment into a place of justice and equality. 

In 2018, Galería was displaced from its month-to-month rental sites and since then has worked to acquire a permanent home. Navigating displacement has posed the greatest challenge, yet it has offered a unique and timely opportunity to reflect and take stock of the organizational needs to ensure its role as a local and international platform for the highly diverse and evolving Latine cultural expression for seven generations to come. 

Today, Galería has secured two locations that fall under the Galería de la Raza umbrella, Studio 24 and Studio 16. Acquisitions of these sites were done through complex community benefit agreements, private sector and local government investments to guarantee permanent home(s) in the Mission District.

The locations of these new home(s) geographically place Galería within major transportation hubs and cultural corridors that move and infuse the workforce that enriches the City’s and Bay Area’s artistic and cultural life.  Located on 16th Street, Studio 16 is based in the American Indian Cultural District and Studio 24, located off of 24th Street, is in the heart of the Calle 24 Latino Cultural District. Situated within highly accessible public transportation centers, the two sites allow Galería to serve the City’s residents and the Bay Area’s more than 1.3 million Latine population.

As Galería moves into the next era of community investment - centering cultural workers and artists - the relocation is an affirmation of its values and community commitment to preserve cultural essence and support community well-being.

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Galería de la Raza’s Studio 16 (6,882 sq. ft.) will house the Exhibition Gallery and Performance Multi-Use Venue spaces that will house our visual arts and performance arts programs. As of April 2023, the site structure has been built (the core, warm-shell) and Galería is launching the tenant improvements that finalize the use of the spaces.

More details to come!