The Sanctuaries was founded as the first interfaith arts community in the country.

In 2013, twenty neighbors began organizing sacred spaces, or “sanctuaries,” where artists of different racial and religious backgrounds could build trust and take collective action. Over the following seven years, The Sanctuaries incorporated as a nonprofit and trained hundreds of multidisciplinary artists to work on the front lines of grassroots organizing campaigns and national social movements to address pressing social issues ⁠— from preventing the displacement of public housing residents, to securing legal representation for refugees, to mobilizing tens of thousands of young people to shift policies on climate change. In 2020, The Sanctuaries released its nonprofit structure to free up time and resources to advance the work of multicultural organizing in new ways. Its legacy continues through the work that our artists are doing today all across the country.