Opening Reception: Friday, February 7 from 6 – 8pm
Exhibition Runs: February 7 – 27, 2020
ArtStreet, a program of Albuquerque Health Care for the Homeless, and Harwood Art Center join together to present Recycled Heart, an exhibit featuring mixed media and recycled art by ArtStreet artists. Speaking to possibilities for transformation, Recycled Heart reflects the unique perspectives of ArtStreet’s inventive, resilient artists – diverse creators who use what they’ve found along the way to share beauty and hope. Bringing the injustice of poverty and homelessness together, Recycled Heart is an exhibit that is uniquely poised to capture the diverse, distinct, and highly individual responses of ArtStreet artists’ interpretation of their community experiences in relation to poverty and homelessness.
Access to the arts is a social justice issue. ArtStreet makes access to the arts available to those least likely to enjoy it while holding a space to build community connections and increase awareness of the issues of homelessness through the art-making process. Harwood Art Center and Albuquerque Health Care for the Homeless have partnered for nearly three decades in working to address community issues of homelessness. ArtStreet artist, Joey Goss, describes the importance of ArtStreet and the collaboration with Harwood Art Center:
“[ArtStreet] is definitely an opportunity for anyone who wants to take it. In that way it certainly has been for me. It was my first show that let me know/feel like I could do this professionally. I just finished a commissioned piece for the curator of a juried [Recycle Santa Fe] exhibition. In that way ArtStreet has given me “access to the arts.” I know people who know they have no artistic bone in their bodies who now have murals with their names attached. After twelve years of hanging around there, it’s always cool to watch people come into their own through just being there. I love the Harwood Show [and] the people there, it’s always my favorite show of the year. As AHCH has collaborated with the people at Harwood, it has provided me with the brightest spot in my winters.” ~ Joey Goss, ArtStreet Artist
ArtStreet gives community artists – homeless and housed – a common forum to share their experiences, coming together to make art and organize public exhibits like this. One component of the ArtStreet program is a community-based open art studio. ArtStreet brings together people from diverse backgrounds, socioeconomic levels, and artistic abilities to share common experiences by making art in a safe and supportive environment. All proceeds from the sale of ArtStreet art go directly to the artist(s) who created the piece. For information on purchasing a piece of art, please contact ArtStreet at 505-248-0817.
ABOUT ALBUQUERQUE HEALTH CARE FOR THE HOMELESS AND ARTSTREET
Founded in 1985, Albuquerque Health Care for the Homeless (AHCH) provides a continuum of integrated services including primary medical care, dental care, behavioral health, art therapy and social services. AHCH serves more than 7,000 men, women and children throughout the year. They conduct more than 70 hours per week of outreach and provide services at their clinic at 1st and Mountain and at other sites in the community. For more information, please visit www.abqhch.org.
The Recycled Heart exhibition was made possible, in part, by funding from the City of Albuquerque, New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, The National Endowment for the Arts, and Harwood Art Center of Escuela del Sol Montessori. The project also receives funding, in part, from individual contributions and private foundations.