This spring, I hung the 413th painting of my tenure as director of a small non-profit called Home is Where the Art Is (HIWTAI). Hanging paintings is not really the mission of the organization, but it takes up most of the time of its staff (me). The paintings I hang are donated by area artists, and eventually, I hope they will be taken off the walls where I hang them and brought to a good home. You see, all 413 of those paintings have been hung in area homeless shelters, and when residents there find permanent housing, they are encouraged to take a painting with them. Sometimes they take two. It’s fun, rewarding work and it brightens up some pretty drab places. I love the work, but my time as director comes to an end next year when I leave for college. I’m hoping to find someone at Arlington Tech to become the new director and keep the organization going in the future.
HIWTAI was started back in 2016 by a friend of mine, Allison, who just graduated college this year. Allison’s mission, and the mission we continue to respect, was to give original art to individuals who were moving into permanent housing after experiencing homelessness. She wanted to celebrate their success by giving them something beautiful to decorate a space that was finally theirs. Art helps personalize and bring a sense of control to a person’s living space – giving back to a person in need can be as simple as letting them choose a painting of their own.
Getting artists to donate finished artwork isn’t nearly as hard as you might think. Lots of artists’ studios are overflowing with work they haven’t yet sold – and artists like to create art, not store it. So they’re often happy to donate unsold works to us, especially after they learn what we do. Throughout the years, our main partner has been the Arlington Artists Alliance. A short email to that organization might result in a donation of anywhere from 10 to 50 paintings. The paintings are beautiful and varied, and most are professionally framed. Right now, we have about 120 paintings in storage just waiting to find a home.
HIWTAI works with several different homeless shelters in the Arlington and Alexandria areas, and we generally visit each shelter twice a year to hang paintings and meet staff and residents. This is my favorite part of running HIWTAI – the staff at these shelters are smart, dedicated, and kind, and the residents, especially the young ones, are always glad to see us. Spending an afternoon hanging art in a homeless shelter is a chance to make a connectio
n, do something good for the world, and be an unexpected bright spot in someone’s day. Last week, two kids peeked out from behind the door of their room to point and smile at the abstract painting I was hanging across the hall. The 14 paintings in their hallway made the space feel more like a galler
y than a homeless shelter.
Running HIWTAI requires a little entrepreneurial skill, some ability to organize, a moderate amount of time, and a pretty big basement or attic (to store art). Also, a car or truck big enough to haul around 30-40 paintings at a time. The perfect candidate to run HIWTAI after my tenure is over would be someone who is dedicated to the service of others.
Simply staying in contact with shelters and donors through email and text is probably the most important job of the HIWTAI director – everything else just seems to fall into place.
