Bringing It All Back Home:

The Homeless Arts Project

Story by Sandra Andrews
Photography by Steve Widmann

The Homeless Arts Project, while still in its infancy, represents an idea whose time has come: a gallery on the World Wide Web, where homeless and formerly homeless people can display their work.

Since the Web is enormous and international, there is an audience for every need: in this case, the intended audience consists of those who want to learn, those who appreciate art, and, in the future, those who wish to buy art by these particular artists. The Project is expanding rapidly, and in the near future will be moved to a commercial server where artists can sell their work.

Located on the Web (at http://seamonkey.ed.asu.edu/floaters/) the Project uses the World Wide Web and e-mail to give people a chance to learn computer skills as well as a chance to show the world what they can do.

Two Apple computers have been checked out to the Project by the Educational Media and Computers program area at ASU. These computers are used to allow artists to learn to create on a computer; they are also used to teach job skills. As the project expands, newer computers will hopefully be acquired, so that the artists can create using up-to-date software.


Most of us are aware by now that the classic stereotype of the homeless does not fit the reality. We know that not all of the homeless are alcoholic or mentally unstable.

In a time when many full-time jobs do not offer benefits, when one income is not enought for a family to live on, when rents can be high and buying a home impossible, and when landlords feel that they have no choice but to be merciless, there really are many families out there who are just a paycheck away from homelessness.

Robert, for instance, is in his forties, a gentle person who writes poetry and reads Shakespeare in his spare time. He majored in English in college, and found that a degree in English does not lead to well-paying jobs. Still, he found a use for his verbal skills and people skills in various other jobs; ten years ago he took a job in a rental car agency. He worked there until, in the summer of 1995, he was laid off.

It took two months to find another job. In the meantime, an impatient landlord grew even less patient.

Robert is husband to Barbara and dad to Paul, Rachel, and Colleen. Barbara does not have a college degree, but has also worked most of her life, as an artist, later as a jeweler, once as the assistant editor of a small magazine. Barbara is a natural diplomat and counselor, someone who brings peace to troubled waters when parents and children quarrel or when a neighbor has a problem. She does not work, having found that her children need her to be at home with them.

Barbara explained the situation to the landlord, and promised that the family would pay the two months of back rent by December. This was not soon enough for the landlord, who had the family evicted in mid-December.

Today the family has been given refuge in a tiny, one-bedroom trailer in Apache Junction, while they save money to fix their car, to put down a deposit on an apartment or house, and . . . to buy a used computer.

They haven't had to wait until they can afford a computer to start learning about computers, nor to find a way for Barbara to make contact with people who are interested in her art. Barbara is presently using an old Apple IIgs belonging to Educational Media and Computers to teach herself programming, and is learning about instructional design in the hopes of someday being able to design instructional software from her home. It was she who suggested adding the Coriolanus gallery to the Web site. Named after the Shakespeare play, it will focus on art depicting homelessness. Barbara also contributed the Shakespeare quote whose spirit will inform this gallery.


Tara's story is a little different. At sixteen she is an incredibly gifted artist. She draws constantly, and has already had an astonishing array of experiences in life, experiences which infuse her art in one way or another.

Tara's family became homeless when her stepfather decided to take the family to Nevada to look for black opals. He did not give up until over a year had passed. Looking back, Tara sees some good things in these thirteen months: there was the pronghorn she spotted one day, for instance, while her family camped in a forest.

There were some very difficult moments during this period; but Tara's art can take her far, if there aren't any more such obstacles. When the Project can afford the kind of computer that Tara needs, it will be placed where she can access it.


In Mesa, Arizona, almost at the border of Tempe, is a refuge for homeless families called La Mesita. La Mesita was the first agency to understand the concept of an online gallery. Previous agencies contacted were rather confused by the idea. One called back, thinking that the student making the initial call was homeless and in need of shelter!
Only a few families can be accepted into La Mesita's program, but those who are, have found a home. They receive child care, job training, respect, kindness; and they are helped to find jobs and permanent homes. The Homeless Arts Project has room on its pages for the art that La Mesita's children create, as well as for art and poetry that any of their parents choose to submit.




Those who maintain the Homeless Art Project site, and those who contribute their art, writing, and other talents to it, have hopes that this program will make a difference. It has already made a difference in the lives of some, and should make a difference in the lives of many more talented, worthwhile people.