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, showcased his Holga photography at the 10th Annual Somerville Toy Camera Festival at the Nave Gallery from September 9 to October 7, 2023. Using the iconic low-tech Holga camera, Sariñana’s work explores themes of memory and perception, embracing the imperfections and unpredictability of toy camera photography.

Curated by award-winning photographer Joshua Sariñana, Through These Realities is a powerful photography and poetry exhibition that challenges the dominant narratives perpetuated by mass media. This collaborative project brings together the voices and visions of six photographers of color—Adam Cordelle, Andrew Harris, Kenia Arbaiza, Wandy Pascoal, Xudong Liu, and Paul Sayed—paired with the evocative words of six poets of color—Kesper Wang, Isabella De Palo Garcia Perez, Durane West, Alysia Williams, Mayank Chugh, and Cesar Sanchez Beras.

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.

I caught up with the multi-faceted Joshua Sariñana to talk about his new project with the Somerville Arts Council, titled Through These Realities, that will seek six local poets and photographers of color, who will create a series of images, inspired by prompt-guided poetry from poets.