Joshua Sariñana served as a guest panelist for the 2025 Local Cultural Council (LCC) grant for the Somerville Arts Council, contributing to the Film and Interrelated Media panel. The panel aimed to evaluate and allocate funding to creative projects that enrich the cultural landscape of Somerville. As part of his role, Sariñana reviewed grant applications and engaged in discussions to assess the artistic quality, community impact, and feasibility of proposed projects.

Joshua Sariñana, PhD, serves as the curator of Through These Realities, a Somerville Arts Council-supported project that pairs poets and photographers of color to explore themes of racial and social justice through art. Inspired by a James Baldwin quote critiquing the American media’s role in distorting reality, the project challenges mainstream narratives by empowering people of color to share their perspectives. Poets and photographers collaborated to create visual works influenced by poetry to validate the experiences of communities of color and highlight their everyday realities.