Art From the Streets, a non-profit that provides a free art studio for Austin’s homeless citizens, will host their 25th Annual Homeless Art Show and Sell on Dec. 2-3rd at the Austin Convention Center from 11am - 5pm.
For the past 25 years, Art From the Streets has offered a safe space for homeless people to express their creativity and grow through painting and drawing within a supportive community.
“We’re very excited to have this 25th anniversary show. We have 2,000 pieces of new artwork, thousands of pieces of artwork that we stored for the artists over a period of time, and we have about 35 artists that will have booths that are participating. But over 150 artists have worked in our program over this year,” executive director of Art From the Streets, Kelley Worden, said.
(Executive Director, Kelley Worden)
This non-profit has grown immensely over the past 25 years from 70 pieces of artwork to the now thousands that are expected at this upcoming show. The program started off with a few founders hosting in a small room at The Austin Resource Center for the Homeless or ARCH for short.
“One of our founders got together with some friends and decided that they wanted to go to The ARCH and maybe create a sandwich, some lunch maybe - just find something interactive to do with people that are living on the streets. One day they brought in pencils and paper and just wanted to do some interactions versus just sitting around and doing nothing all day and they came up with these amazing pieces of artwork,” Worden said.
(Open studio time)
The art studio is now hosted within the Trinity Center, a resource for the homeless population provided by St. David’s Episcopal Church in downtown Austin. Up until five years ago the Annual Show and Sell art show was also held within St. David’s but has since moved to the Austin Convention Center to allow room for growth.
“So about five years ago we became a 501 (c)(3). So twenty years of just friends of friends of friends making it happen and completely volunteer run. Ten years ago we started receiving funds from the city through the Cultural Arts Division which we still do. A lot of our funding comes from them,” Worden said.
While the building Art From the Streets is hosted in, the size of the program and the location of the art shows have changed, the overall goal has not.
“Success in our world is way different than success with a homeless person or someone who is at risk. Their successes are completely different than what our world perceives as success. You know, are you the CEO of something? Are you the executive director of something? Are you making millions of dollars? Are you donating millions of dollars? Success could be a day to day kind of thing. I successfully made it to art class this week,” Worden said.
(Donations to Art From the Streets)
Art From the Streets isn’t slowing down any time soon. Future goals include moving into their own space so that they can further serve the homeless population in Austin. They also hope to offer art classes and other mediums including sculpting and 3-D design.
*Eye See You Now is a proud supporter of Art From the Streets and the author of this article.
Emily Lewis won a full scholarship to Parsons, but it was a very different route than usual for her to get there. Emily was a high school drop out. She was addicted to drugs. Luckily, she met a mentor at a homeless shelter and was able to take control of her life again.
Her mentor, an employee at the homeless shelter was almost not permitted to start the art therapy program that pulled Emily back on her feet. The director only believed they were there to put a roof over people’s head, not to give them every amenity.
Luckily, with a lot of hard work and self trust, this program was created, and Emily joined in the fall of 2008. She soon was hired as the intern of the therapy program. She had never painted before that, but the directors of the program saw a special magic in her.
The director of the homeless shelter has changed her tune on art therapy. She now understands that you have to feed the should and the bodies of people for them to succeed. It is easy to overlook programs like this, but once you see their success in action they are impossible to ignore.
Emily was encouraged to apply for art school by an art collector from Princeton. This art collector saw Emily’s work at an art show and purchased six pieces, some of which are worth thousands of dollars. This collector encouraged her to do something she never even thought about- apply for art school. The collector helped her create a portfolio, get her GED and take the SAT. She was accepted on her first try on a full ride scholarship.
All it took was a community believing in her and the power of art to get Emily a new future. What could happen with a program like this in your neighborhood?
