Yancy Villa

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.