Art From the Streets

Art From the Streets works with unhoused people in Austin, Texas, helping them create art as a form of employment and income, along with building confidence, productivity, autonomy, and technical skills. Art From the Streets gives homeless people the resources they need to build artistic skills for the sake of both income (including training for professional positions in the arts), and mental health— building people’s self confidence and providing a safe place for unhoused people to communicate how they feel through art. As mental health and self expression are aspects of life typically ignored by the the public and by state institutions when it comes to homeless folks, Art From the Streets strives to give these areas of discourse earnest attention via action and artistic activism.

Art From the Streets uses a methodology called Self-Determination Theory, in which the organization emphasizes autonomy, skills, and connection as a means to help these artists create a better life for themselves, on and off of the streets. Once the artist has created their art, Art From the Streets helps sell the art online and at local exhibitions around Austin. When the artwork sells at community events, the artist receives 95% of the sale revenue, and when the art sells on online platforms, they receive 60% of the proceeds. Art From the Streets also maintains a podcast where representatives from the organization interviews their artists, giving them a public platform to tell their stories and to tell the public about how art has helped them in their personal and professional lives.

Through accessibility to the arts, Art From the Streets seeks to address the effects of homelessness through daily practice in a learning environment, with support from positive role models, to help foster new, positive, and creative habits for individuals experiencing homelessness and for those who are at high risk. Artists at Art From the Streets have widely reported on the positive effects the organization have implemented in their lives, including a new or reawakened sense of community belonging, a reinvigorated sense of self worth, and, of course, a new stream of dignified income, among much else.