Yancy Villa is a socially engaged artist and civic design consultant who seeks to create awareness, engage in conversation, and encourage social justice, urban planning, equity, public policy, and community prosperity.

Villa is a 2020-2022 Kennedy Center Citizen Artist Fellow. In 2019, she was recognized as one of “40 Change Makers Who Have Made Memphis Better in the Past 40 Years.” Internationally, the Mexican Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Culture recognized her as an artist working on binational art initiatives for public diplomacy. She is a recipient of grants and commissions from the Smithsonian Latino Center, the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures, the Tennessee Arts Commission, ArtsMemphis, UnidosUS, the Funders’ Network, the UrbanArt Commission, and the City of Memphis, among others.

Her work ranges from civic design and public art to urban planning and activism. Her form provides a platform that encourages collaboration and dialogue across sectors to activate public spaces, inform and guide city plans and architectural design of neighborhood developments, and city investment in community spaces through genuine resident engagement.

● Intertwining. The most recent integration of art into the built environment. It is a suspended sculpture that spans 200 ft and meanders across a 40 ft wide area; an abstract representation of a tapestry in the making—inspired by Memphis’s multicultural roots and rich history while addressing systemic racism and other social issues weave Memphis’ social fabric. Villa and brg3s architects were selected among 152 national teams to create artwork for Memphis International Airport.

● Go Explore Memphis Soul (GEMS). Liaising with diverse communities, officials, and planners, she engaged residents in their neighborhood planning and economic development.

● Gaisman Community Center and Park. The Gaisman Community Center and Park engagement and identity-design project served a neighborhood predominantly formed by Latinx and Arab-Americans.

● Memphis Welcoming Plan for New and Aspiring Americans. As the artist and project manager, she collaborated with New American Economic, Welcoming America, and Latino Memphis to create a report with recommendations for city implementation.

● Barrier-Free. A traveling is an interactive art installation that asks viewers to reflect on the human-made and systemic barriers that divide us, from unjust immigration laws to mass incarceration. It has been exhibited in Washington D.C., Texas, Mississippi, Arizona, Maryland, and twelve locations in Tennessee.

Her formal education is from Christian Brothers University and Memphis College of Art with a B.A. in Psychology, a B.F.A. in Studio Art, and an M.B.A. She holds certificates from the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts as a Creative Catalyst, UrbanArts Commission Institute at the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis, MO, and the Advocacy Leadership Institute of National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures in Washington, D.C. She serves on boards and committees of organizations, including Overton Park Conservancy, Building Memphis, ArtsMemphis, The Brooks Museum, Latino Memphis, and the LeBonheur Children’s Hospital. She is a member of the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures and the International Association of Art U.S.A.