Event for the Homeless Outreach Street Team
The Art from the Streets organization was thrilled to be invited to participate in an event that was hosted by the Office of Innovation on Monday morning. The city of Austin was recently given a grant in order to help tackle the problem of homelessness. With that grant in mind, the purpose of this event was for the Homeless Outreach Street Team (HOST) to survey the homeless and see how effective the programs in place are and what they can do to improve them. The goal of HOST is to be able to help the homeless population get back on their feet and avoid a situation that is detrimental to their health or where the law has to be involved.
Our part in this event was to create a pop up interactive art piece where the homeless were able to take a break from the surveying and paint using pastels. The amount of people who joined in was amazing and at one point we even had some of the workers jump in and paint! This interactive piece was a fun and soothing experience for all of those who joined in and even to those who just stood and stared as the artists painted.
It was very satisfying to watch the canvas go from black and white to a sea of colors. This event was a wonderful way to not only get the word out about our program but to also help those who attended to explore their creative side.
