Amplifying the voices of youth and creating opportunity have been at the heart of EPACENTER since its inception.
The concept for EPACENTER was incubated in 2010 when the John & Marcia Goldman Foundation, aware that there was a dearth of enriching afterschool options in the City of East Palo Alto, partnered with Stanford’s John Gardner Center to ask youth what they wanted in their community to support their dreams and aspirations. The youth’s response: a welcoming, safe, inspiring space that offered high quality programming across a range of creative disciplines. Encouraged by the level of enthusiasm and community support, the John & Marcia Goldman Foundation committed to making this vision a reality. As the idea gained traction and support, JMGF provided resources for East Palo Alto’s youth to continue to drive their vision forward. In 2015, wHY, the architectural firm the youth selected, convened over a dozen community feedback sessions to gather input and inspirations. The end result was a 25,000 square foot, state-of-the-art, platinum green certified, building with sound studios, workshop space, as well as a theater, art gallery, outdoor spaces and amphitheater. The Center celebrated its grand opening April 2022, just as East Palo Alto was emerging from Covid pandemic closures.
Since then, EPACENTER has grown into a core civic institution, fostering and strengthening the vibrancy, innovation, and communal power of East Palo Alto.
In 2025, after successfully serving East Palo Alto’s youth, EPACENTER expanded its creativity-focused programming to include people of all ages. While young people remain at its core, EPACENTER now delivers inclusive, high-quality classes, creative experiences, and career pathways through the arts to people of all ages and abilities. It hosts community-wide festivals and celebrations, produces musical events and performances, mounts art exhibits, offers job training in the creative fields, spreads imagination through public art projects, and provides services to seniors and people with developmental disabilities as well as to the community at-large. EPACENTER’s is a bright light, providing opportunities in East Palo Alto for people of all ages to realize their potential through creative expression, civic engagement, and community service.
For JMGF, EPACENTER exemplifies the breadth of the foundation’s priorities – supporting youth, their families and their communities; making art more accessible and available to everyone, everywhere; demonstrating the far-reaching benefit of creativity on individuals such as academic success, job skills, emotional resiliency and joy; and seeking out and investing in community-driven solutions.
