By Seth Sandronsky

Local artist Steff Echeverria uses charcoal, chalk pastel and oil pastel with paint on cardstock to create some of her artwork. Among her portfolio, some titles include “Spontaneous Healing,” “Living with a Mental Illness” and “Love More,” the latter of which is also the name of her recent solo exhibit at Women’s Wisdom Art in Sacramento.

After wrapping up her first solo art exhibit at WWA in early July, Echeverria taught a visual journaling class.

“Art is my favorite language,” Echeverria says. “I live with manic depression and over

the last 15 years I have been developing a style of expression that I must keep at it. I

must do art daily, transforming feelings and emotions through line, color and shape. I am

learning to thrive through creativity — art.”

Located on Del Paso Boulevard, the nonprofit WWA provides free workshops on poetry, resumes and artist statements for original pieces. WWA also offers workshops on quilling art paper, painting on glass, glass bead mobiles, acrylics, crochet, mosaics, music and yoga.

The WWA workshops, like the one taught by Echeverria, are designed to expand the mental and physical capacities of participants in terms of art and skill development, including practical applications. 

The workshops range from two to seven participants four times a week and serve lower-income communities from Mercy Housing, North Sacramento Family Resource Center, Sister Nora’s Place and First Step Communities.

Lauren Baggett is a Sacramento artist with a background in audio production. She began teaching acrylic color exploration workshops at WWA in May. “It’s been a rewarding experience,” Baggett says. “One of the workshop attendees recently sold her first piece of art. That spurred me to begin planning a fall workshop to help artists with building their inventory.”

Helping artists to arrange their inventories as a way to make a living from their work is central, according to Baggett. She has first-hand experience as an artist whose logos, signs and promotional materials are at the Statehouse Restaurant under the state Capitol dome.

In July, Baggett began teaching art workshops at The Grove for First Step Communities , a tiny-cabin community in North Sacramento that provides emergency housing for 50 homeless young adults ages 18-24. 

“Women’s Wisdom Art brings a much needed moment of pause to The Grove,” First Step spokesperson Kayley Glaspell says. “This can be an incredibly overwhelming time for the young adults here, as they are tasked with many responsibilities while preparing for housing.”

The workshops give the residents of the shelter respite, which helps to facilitate creativity and achieve the goals of both WWA and First Step. “WWA provides them a chance to slow down, connect with one another, and express their creativity,” Glaspell said. “We have consistently found that the more creativity we bring into our space, the more successful outcomes we see.”

Rhony Bhopla, who is the current WWA board chair, arrived at the organization with her mother six years ago. While the therapeutic aspects of creative activity is a focus of WWA, for Bhopla, she is more focused on the DEI aspect. “A big reason for my participation is the emphasis on welcoming all people to enhanc[e] their pursuit of art and wellness,” Bhopla says. WWA is on a mission to bring diversity, equity and inclusion to creative pursuits according to Bhopla, who is also a book critic and poet.

WWA supports DEI as an artistic bridge to those of all ages and backgrounds; women of the LGBTQ+, Black, Asian, indigenous and neurodivergent communities who might otherwise not have access to artistic opportunities.

Activist, author and poet Laura Ann Walton, founded “The Wisdom Project” in 1991 to help low-income women cope with loss and violence. This project led to the formation and location of WWA.

Walton collaborated with Julia Connor, Susan Kelly DeWitt, Nancy Earl and former Sacramento Mayor Ann Rudin to develop this project out of Loaves and Fishes’ Maryhouse, a place for homeless women and their kids to safely shelter during the day.

Bhopla will leave her position as board chair in 2025. Her aim until then is for the nonprofit to expand sustainability, increase the number of weekly workshops, and expand the diversity of the WWA board. “I want to hand off a projected goal to my successor,” Bhopla says. 

This story was funded by the City of Sacramento’s Arts and Creative Economy Journalism Grant to Solving Sacramento. Following our journalism code of ethics and protocols, the city had no editorial influence over this story and no city official reviewed this story before it was published. Our partners include California Groundbreakers, Capital Public Radio, Outword, Russian America Media, Sacramento Business Journal, Sacramento News & Review, Sacramento Observer and Univision 19.