The H*Art Gallery (and that asterisk should really be a little heart symbol in the title, but I can't figure out how to make that symbol on my computer!) is just two doors down from Planet Altered, and we visited there after we were finished with our visit with Linda. The gallery is devoted exclusively to exhibiting art created by people who are homeless. Some of the people who work with the gallery offer an art class on Fridays at the Chattanooga Community Kitchen, and there they look for particular talent in the art of the guests and invite those who exhibit particular artistic talent to exhibit their work at the H*Art Gallery.
Exhibiting their work at the H*Art Gallery gives the artists a chance to sell their work; all pieces on exhibit at any given time are for sale to the public. When the H*Art Gallery sells a painting, 60 percent of the proceeds go directly to the artist, 30 percent goes to the gallery, and 10 percent goes to a charity of the artist's choosing. I thought this was a particularly powerful model -- that even when the artists are living on the street and themselves may be the beneficiaries of charities, they still give 10 percent (a tithe) of the money from the sale of their art to a charity.
So how do people living on the streets manage to find the time or space to create art, much less afford the materials required to produce it? In addition to art classes like the ones held at the Community Kitchen, the H*Art Gallery opens its space to artists on Wednesdays and Thursdays, giving them a space to work and materials and supplies they can use in creating their art.
The gallery also holds fundraising dinners in the gallery space five or six times a year. They get a local chef to donate his or her time, and use the small but state-of-the-art kitchen in the back to create extravagant, $75 per plate kind of meals. The guests at the dinner are seated at nice tables with white table cloths and candles right in the middle of the gallery, which allows them to view and appreciate the art all while giving back to the gallery and to the homeless people it benefits.
In addition to being a gallery space, the H*Art Gallery is also available for event rentals in Chattanooga -- so people can hold receptions or bridal showers or any number of other private events here (and use the kitchen in the back!) for a small fee, which raises money for the gallery and raises awareness about the issues of homelessness and brings the beauty of their art to a wider audience. What a brilliant idea.The H*Art Gallery embodies what our professor Susanna Metz wrote about in a recent article on sacred space in the city for a publication called "Tuesday Morning," a resource for clergy:
"Finally it seems we’re beginning to understand that all of us—every human being—regardless of our station in life, have a God-given yearning for beauty. Our creativity makes us whole. Being able to indulge ourselves in what we love, what we consider beautiful, helps us find our wholeness."
"Finally it seems we’re beginning to understand that all of us—every human being—regardless of our station in life, have a God-given yearning for beauty. Our creativity makes us whole. Being able to indulge ourselves in what we love, what we consider beautiful, helps us find our wholeness."
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