A free arts festival and mutual aid fair including: • Exhibition & auction of 100 ceramic house sculptures by 100 houseless artists • Artists’ mercantile • Live music by Pink Martini's Edna Vazquez & DJ Anjali and the Incredible Kid • Food & drink, including 500 meals from Stone Soup
Gather:Make:Shelter launched The Joy Project in early 2023 when artist Thomas Orr donated a hundred house sculptures for unhoused artists to paint with their dreams of home. Participants have been paid for their work at citywide painting workshops and they are donating the finished houses for the exhibition and auction. Expressing their vision for the city they call home, project participants are activating the plaza with a 600-square-foot installation in collaboration with architect Miles Woofter from Woofter Bolch Architecture. It will feature a large-scale topographic model of the city where the house sculptures will be displayed.
The Joy Project brings together a network of sister nonprofit organizations and houseless artists who are working together to address the houselessness crisis and create meaningful change. Organizations who hosted Joy Project workshops include: Rose Haven, Street Roots, Maybelle Center, p:ear, Ecumenical Ministries’ HIV Day Center, WeShine’s Parkrose Community Village, BIPOC Village, Queer Affinity Village, Hazelnut Grove Village and Cultivate Initiatives’ Menlo Park Village. These and other partner organizations will have information tables at the festival where houseless and housed attendees can learn about resources and opportunities for creative solutions and collaboration. The event is intended to build community and strengthen mutual support; and proceeds from the auction will be shared among partner organizations. Above all, The Joy Project celebrates our shared humanity through art.
Established in 2017, Gather:Make:Shelter works with people experiencing houselessness through transformative arts mentorships that provide creative skill-building and vocational training. Through engagement in public mural projects, garden design and gallery exhibitions, participants develop artistic talents and employable skills, build self-confidence, achieve financial stability, attain permanent housing and become contributing members of the community.
Major support for The Joy Project is provided by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. The Joy Project is also funded in part by the Regional Arts & Culture Council, Marie Lamfrom Charitable Foundation, The Zidell Family Foundation and Killian Pacific.
