William Estrada grew up in California, Mexico, and Chicago. His teaching and art-making practice addresses inequity, migration, historical passivity, and cultural recognition in historically marginalized communities. He documents and engages experiences in public spaces to transform, question, and make connections to established and organic systems through discussion, creation, and amplification of stories through creativity already present. He is currently a faculty member at the UIC School of Art and Art History and a Teaching Artist at Telpochcalli Elementary School. He has worked as an educator with Chicago Arts Partnership in Education, Hyde Park Art Center, SkyArt, Marwen Foundation, Urban Gateways, DePaul University’s College Connect Program, Graffiti Institute, Vermont College of Art and Design, Prison + Neighborhood Art Project, and the School of The Art Institute of Chicago.
William’s art and teaching are a collaborative discourse of existing images, text, and politics that appoints the audience to re-examine public and private spaces critically. As a teacher, artist, and cultural worker, he reports records, reveals, and amplifies experiences you find in academic books, school halls, teacher lounges, kitchen tables, barrios, college campuses, and in the conversations of close friends to engage in radical imagination. William is currently engaging in collaborative work with the Mobilize Creative Collaborative, Chicago ACT Collective, and Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative.
William has presented in various panels regarding community programming, arts integration, and social justice curricula through the Illinois Art Education Association, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Illinois Humanities Council, the Smart Museum of Art, the National Guild of Schools in the Arts, National Art Education Association, Teachers for Social Justice San Francisco, Iowa University, Grand View University, Illinois State University, University of Nebraska at Kearney, Nebraska Art Teachers Association, Illinois Arts Alliance, Chicago Cultural Alliance, Gallery 400, Utah State University, and University of New Mexico. William was awarded the 2016 Teaching Artist Community Award from 3Arts Chicago, the Inaugural 2017 Artist in Residence for the Artist as Instigator Residency Program at the National Public Housing Museum, the 2021 National Leadership Award from the National Guild for Community Arts Education, the Inaugural 2023 Imagine Just Fellow, the 2023 Catalyst for Change Fellow, was named “The People’s Art Teacher” in The Reader’s People Issue 2023, and is a 2024 cohort member for the Mural Arts Initiative’s Strength Through Solidarity Initiative.
His current research is focused on developing community-based and culturally relevant projects that center power structures of race, economy, and cultural access in contested spaces to collectively imagine just futures.
Featured Artworks
The NEW Mobile Street Art Cart! Designed in collaboration with and fabricated by Andrés Lemus-Spont from Building Brown Workshop. This image was taken while screen-printing limited edition wash cloths at the 2024 Gala Fundraiser for the National Public Housing Museum.
Screen printing on the street through Mattie Rhodes Center in Kansas City, Missouri.
Making buttons through the Mobile Street Art Cart Project in the Chicago Western Suburbs.
Screen printing on handkerchiefs with students at Northwestern University through the Mobile Street Art Cart Project.
Painting a protest banner in support of the Chicago Teachers Union through the Mobile Street Art Cart Project.
Screen printing posters in collaboration with Axis Lab Chicago through the Mobile Street Art Cart Project.
Conference attendees personalizing hand screen printed tote bags printed through the Mobile Street Art Cart at Housing Action Illinois' 2023 Housing Justice Conference in Bloomington, IL.
Family Portrait Project Backdrop set up.
Taking family portraits through the Hyde Park Art Center as part of the Hyde Park Jazz Festival.
Photographing families in Little Village Neighborhood through the Family Portrait Project.
Close up of handmade puppets as part of the Puppets & Resistencia Project, a collaboration with Jasmin Cardenas funded through Illinois Humanities as part of Envisioning Justice.
Handmade puppets and stage as part of the Puppets & Resistencia Project, a collaboration with Jasmin Cardenas funded through Illinois Humanities as part of Envisioning Justice.
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Cover page. Little Village Dreams, an Environmental Justice Coloring Book created in collaboration with the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization. Printed and hand bound by the RADICAL Printshop Project.
Timeline Insert of LVEJO Community Organizing. Little Village Dreams, an Environmental Justice Coloring Book created in collaboration with the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization. Printed and hand bound by the RADICAL Printshop Project.
Community member painting part of the Little Village Dreams Mural in the streets of Little Village Neighborhood. In collaboration with Little Village Environmental Justice Organization with funding from E(art)H Art Chicago.
Young person painting part of the Little Village Dreams Mural at Semillas de Justicia Community garden in the Little Village Neighborhood. In collaboration with Little Village Environmental Justice Organization with funding from E(art)H Art Chicago.
Young person painting part of the Little Village DreFinal Mural installed at Semillas de Justicia. In collaboration with Little Village Environmental Justice Organization with funding from E(art)H Art Chicago.
Participants hand coloring linoleum prints they created in collaboration with Lawyers from the University of Miami for use in Housing Advocacy. The prints were created in collaboration with Redline Services. This is part of the RADICAL Printshop Project.
Participants hand coloring linoleum prints they created in collaboration with Lawyers from the University of Miami for use in Housing Advocacy. The prints were created in collaboration with Redline Services. This is part of the RADICAL Printshop Project.
Ancestral Memory. One of twelve graphics created as part of the 2023 Imagine Just Fellowship. The prints were part of a limited edition of risogrpahs printed as part of the RADICAL Printshop Project.
Practice Healing. One of twelve graphics created as part of the 2023 Imagine Just Fellowship. The prints were part of a limited edition of risogrpahs printed as part of the RADICAL Printshop Project.
William Estrada has crowd-funded a project with 3AP
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- $5,075 raised of $3,000 goal
- 0 Days 0:00:00 LEFT
As a teaching artist with nearly twenty years of experience working in schools and arts organizations, I am excited to create a “Mobile Street Art Cart” that will bring collaborative, community-relevant artmaking to the streets of Chicago. For the past …
Read more about The Mobile Street Art Cart -
- $5,850 raised of $5,000 goal
- 0 Days 0:00:00 LEFT
As a community artist with more than twenty years of experience working in schools and arts organizations, I am excited to launch an expanded Chicago Neighborhood Family Portrait Project that will provide free family portraits to people in their neighborhood. …
Read more about Chicago Neighborhood Family Portrait Project