In Sept of 2023 I Joined Housing Matters as their artist in residence. “Housing Matters is just one of 23 community partners in six Central Coast counties that received grants from the Central Coast Creative Corps. The goal? Investing in talented artists like Abi to team up with community partners and tackle civic engagement, public health, social justice, and climate resilience across the Central Coast. They’re focusing on communities in need, based on the California Healthy Places Index (HPI).” (housingmatters.org)

As an artist in residence with this pilot program I’ve had the opportunity to work alongside the community engagement team to create public art projects and events to support the work of Housing Matters. Housing Matters is a local non-profit that partners with families and individuals experiencing homelessness to help create pathways towards permanent sustainable housing. For more information please visit https://housingmatterssc.org/about-us/mission-and-history/

This has been and incredible opportunity and learning experience. Here are some of the projects we’ve gotten to create so far.

Weekly Art Jams for Housing Residence at Rebele Shelter. This was a weekly art co-working space for residence. I wanted my first projects to be something that allowed me to become better acquainted with the residence and working flow of Housing Matters. There are a ton of moving parts. Onboarding as I learned is ongoing it seems. There are always new things to learn and adjust to. In these first few weeks I got to know several families and volunteers while facilitating art projects that ranged from coloring, to portrait painting, goo making, and mixed media 2d experimentation. This felt like a worthy endeavor and as the weeks went on more residence showed up for the weekly events. The purpose was to create space for people in crisis to safely create, express and explore with tools and support.

The second project was an alter for the yearly homeless memorial. I chose to do this project to create an intentional space for those grieving the loss of a loved one to place items, letters, and candles. The letters and names placed on the alter were created with wildflower paper and then planted. This was a laser cut sculpture I designed and assembled.

As I drew inspiration from the first few projects I was able to create a fun art workshop for the staff of Housing Matters at one of their retreats. While this wasn’t a huge project it felt impactful for the staff to be able to create together.

Our largest project together so far has been Look Me In the Eyes. An art show I curated between those with lived experience, local artists, and a local photographer named Abram Katz. We connected with community member who have worked with Housing Matters on their journey to stable housing, several of whom are part of the speakers bureau. We invited collaborators to share their stories, and have portraits taken. The portraits were given to other local artist collaborators to create paintings with for the final show. The storytellers with lived experience and the artists (many of whom also have lived experience of being unhoused) come together at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History to invite the public into our collaborated work. All participants were compensated for their contribution.

Connections were made. Lots of stories were told and heard. The amount of relatability and empathy in the room was palpable. We met our neighbors and many went on to maintain relationships that were formed that evening. As the curator I got to have a birds eye view of the entire process and am still trying to find a way to share my experience with it. While each piece matters, what I got to see and am still getting to watch grow are some of the connections made that night and how they have changed people. I’m curious to see how this continues to ripple out into our community. All participants can be found on the Housing Matters website as well as the Housing Matters instagram.

For my final project I have begun the work on a short series podcast entitled, “Hear me out.” This was intended to explore the nuance of the housing crisis from many angles and while it in many ways does, what I learned in interviewing people inspired me to pivot a little bit to show some unseen elements of what it is to work in this sector. This is work is really intimate. Learning what people go through in trying to help others, and what it requires of us to ask for help is humbling on both sides of the interaction is very humbling and inspiring.

Also editing and putting work like this out into the world is scary because it has come to mean so much to me. Thanks for your patience while I make time to finish this important work.

Even though my residency has wrapped up I’ve been inspired to continue with the podcast edits and interviews. Stay tuned. Coming shortly…(or longly)