About

The Laundromat Project advances artists and neighbors as change agents in their own communities.

We envision a world in which artists and neighbors in communities of color work together to unleash the power of creativity to transform lives. We make sustained investments in growing a community of multiracial, multigenerational, and multidisciplinary artists and neighbors committed to societal change by supporting their artmaking, community building, and leadership development.

When artists and communities collaborate toward collective goals, we create meaningful transformation and wellbeing.

Making art and culture in community and fostering new leadership helps shape a world in which members feel truly connected and have the ability to influence and shape their communities in creative and effective ways.

Since our beginning, The LP has centered the voices, cultures, imaginations, knowledge, and leadership of people of color (POC).

We do this to push against complex systemic injustices in pursuit of a world in which all people—across race, ethnicity, class, age, gender, sexuality, religion, nationality, disability status, and migration status—are free to be their whole selves.

Read Our POC-Centered Principles

Our roots reach back to 1999, when The LP founder, Bed-Stuy resident Risë Wilson, left the corporate sector to build a life around art and community service.

Risë’s original idea for The Laundromat Project was to meet people where they already were and use art as a tool for turning strangers into neighbors. A belief in creativity as a powerful means of self-determination—and a keen desire to redraw the lines between art maker and art consumer, art as luxury and art as necessity—led Risë to the laundromat: “No matter what was happening in the economy, people had to do their laundry, and this was a kind of de facto public space.”
The idea of a laundromat as a primary place for engagement has expanded over time. It now serves as a metaphor for a variety of settings in which artists and neighbors transform their lives and surroundings. Our programming has evolved to take place in community gardens, public plazas, local cultural organizations, and other places where people gather.

STAFF

Ayesha Williams

Executive Director

Munira Khapra-Reininger

Dir. of Development & External Affairs

Catherine Mbali Green-Johnson

Director of Programs

Shana Wolfe

Director of Finance & Operations

Staff & Leadership