The Emanuel Project

In the 1960s and ’70s, Denver’s La Alma Lincoln Park neighborhood was the hub and heart of the state’s Chicano civil rights movement, the remnants of which can still be viewed on the neighborhood’s sun-bleached walls. That the stories survive as murals is thanks, in part, to The Emanuel Project, an arts nonprofit that launched Chicana/o/x Murals of Colorado in 2018 to protect the early murals from fading into obscurity. The organization, named for Denver muralist Emanuel Martínez, has preserved more than 20 community murals around the state, and continues to raise awareness about both historic and contemporary Chicana/o/x muralists of Colorado.