SARASOTA – A local nonprofit aiming to help those living on the streets find housing, is venturing out and opening a community space for all.
“We’re super excited about having events here to bring the community together,” said Cathy Bryant. “It builds awareness, it builds relationships. It’s what we set out to do.”
Streets of Paradise, a nonprofit aiming to help those living on the streets in Sarasota, is celebrating the soft opening of their new Love Art & Repeat gallery located on 734 Central Ave.
Bryant, president of the non-profit, says the new space is the future site of several of their community outreach programs, a goal the organization has had since launching almost three years ago.
“A place to hold meetings, a place to come together as a community, which is always the thing that is most important to us,” said Bryant.
Bryant says the gallery also features artwork by local artists. Some of the artist share through their artwork their own journey of living on the streets or dealing with mental health crisis while homeless.
“We want to be able to tell the stories and there’s a lot of people that we have housed that we’ve built relationship with; and they’ve been able to express themselves through the journey with art,” she said. “There are several pieces in here that were done in those really dark time and in the spaces of healing.”
Bryant says the gallery offers the artists a platform for their stories to be heard, hoping this way they’re able to share with the community of the hardships and triumphs of those who’ve made it out of homelessness.
“It’s just another way of being able to let people be heard,” said Bryant. “It’s a bit more challenging to hear it on the streets so to be able to express it via art in a different kind of environment is easier.”
Some of the art will be up for sale and Bryant and her crew are working on setting up hours for private tours, but for the meantime Streets of Paradise has established a home so that they can build on the trust with the community they’re serving.
For more information on the gallery or for ways to help out visit streetsofparadise.org.
