Juan William Chávez (born in Lima, Peru ) is an artist and cultural activist whose studio practice focuses on the potential of space by developing creative initiatives that address community and culture issues.

He has exhibited at venues such as Art in General, Contemporary Art Museum Saint Louis, White Flag Projects, Van Abbenmuseum and will have a solo exhibition at Laumeier Sculpture Park in the fall of 2012..

In 2006, Chávez founded Boots Contemporary Art Space 2006-2010, an art lab that provided emerging artists and curators with a space that supported the creation of new work.

Since 2010, Chavez has been collaboration with St. Louis neighborhoods on community and public art projects. Such projects include curator for Urban Expression for the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, Old North Cookbook , Northside Workshop and the
Pruitt-Igoe Bee Sanctuary

In 2011 he was awarded the Missouri Arts Award for Individual Artist, was the recipient of the Art Matters Grant and was nominated for the United States Artists fellowship. Recently, Chavez was named a 2012 fellows of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

Chavez has a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute (2000) and a MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2004)