A small but mighty El Paso nonprofit that uses visual arts and mural painting to mentor at-risk youth in some of the city’s most under-resourced communities has earned national recognition, being named a recipient of the Americans for the Arts Public Art Network Award — one of the most prestigious honors in the country for community-centered public arts programming.
Border Arts Collaborative, which operates out of a converted warehouse in El Paso’s Segundo Barrio neighborhood, works with young people between the ages of 14 and 22, many of whom have had contact with the juvenile justice system or are living in difficult family circumstances. The organization pairs youth with professional artists for year-long mentorships that culminate in large-scale murals painted on public walls across the city.
“We believe art saves lives, and we have the young people to prove it,” said Border Arts Collaborative Executive Director Sofia Reyna, who founded the organization 11 years ago after leaving a career in commercial design to work in her hometown community. “The kids who come through our program come in with walls up, and they leave as artists, as leaders, as people who believe they have something to offer the world.”
Since its founding, the organization has worked with more than 800 youth and has painted 47 large-scale murals across El Paso and across the border in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico — a binational dimension that the Americans for the Arts jury specifically cited as a particularly powerful and distinctive element of the program’s approach.
The murals themselves have become landmarks in the communities where they appear, attracting visitors and generating local pride. Several have been featured in national art publications, and a traveling exhibition of documentation of the collaborative’s work has been shown at museums in Texas, New Mexico, and California.
Program participant Marcus Herrera, 19, said the organization changed the trajectory of his life. “I was heading in a direction that wasn’t going anywhere good,” he said. “And then I found this place and found painting, and it gave me something I was good at, something I cared about. Now I’m applying to art school. That would not have happened without Border Arts Collaborative.”
The national award comes with a $25,000 prize that Reyna said would be used to expand the program’s capacity, allowing it to serve an additional 30 youth per year. The organization was also in discussions with El Paso city officials about a long-term partnership that could provide stable operating support.
El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser congratulated the organization and said the city was proud to be home to a program that was garnering national attention. “Border Arts Collaborative embodies what is best about El Paso — our resilience, our creativity, and our commitment to taking care of one another,” Leeser said.
The organization’s annual gala fundraiser, scheduled for March at the El Paso Museum of Art, was expected to sell out quickly in the wake of the national recognition, with several new corporate sponsors expressing interest in partnership. Information about supporting the program was available on the organization’s website and social media channels.
