Street Life Art Gallery:

Last October Mary Enstad, NHM Case Management Coordinator, heard about an opportunity for youth to participate in an art project with great purpose, garbage! Actually the project was for a group of youth to participate in the painting of garbage cans that would be placed throughout Seattle.

This is how Mary describes the project:

After morning drop-in I trooped down Second Avenue in the rain with six youth. We were a mismatched group headed to Street Life Art Gallery to check out a project in which the youth hoped to participate, painting art on city trash receptacles.

Street Life is a beautiful windowed gallery on the corner of Second and Bell, just four blocks away from New Horizons. Homeless and formerly homeless adults can drop-in and create art. As we walked in, several people were quietly painting, drawing and knitting as classical music played in the background. Veronica (not her real name), a Street Life volunteer and coordinator of the trash receptacle project, led us to a large table where we dried off and got comfortable.

As Veronica led us through several exercises, the atmosphere of the place soaked in and the attitude of our little group transformed. The youth were inspired by the proposed project. They began to talk with animation: "I have hundreds of possible designs in my journal." "I've been an artist in the past, but I buried it until now." "I've won awards for art."

Four of the original six youth showed up later that week to participate in the project. Each youth spent ten hours over the course of a week to produce their work. They painted four sides and the peaked roof, using pictures, objects or their imaginations.

We think it's perfect.

Street Life Gallery