Nourishing the soul with art from the heart
The Salvation Army’s Inner-City Art Expo, first held in August 2023, is running again in 2024 to coincide with Homelessness Week (5-11 August 2024). The Art Expo is hosted by The Salvation Army’s Inner City Men's Homelessness Service (Foster House) in Sydney’s Surry Hills and features works by artists who fit the criteria of, “at risk of homelessness; experiencing homelessness, or who had lived experience of homelessness”.
Kristie Clifton, Salvation Army State Manager Homelessness NSW/ACT explains the idea for a state-wide art expo came less than three months out from Homelessness Week 2023. Within that short timeframe, 110 pieces of art from across NSW and the ACT – largely sourced through the wide network of Salvation Army homelessness and housing services – were brought to Foster House.
Many Salvation Army services such as Foster House have art materials available to residents and/or offer therapeutic art sessions to support people with their journey towards healing.
Kristie explains that while there was public educational value to the Expo, the primary purpose was to enrich the lives of those struggling, or who have struggled with homelessness, by providing a voice, a creative outlet, and an opportunity to be seen and celebrated.
Many of the artists and performers have gone through, and are going through, trauma, difficulties and challenges and face stigma and stereotyping.
“It highlights the fact that no matter what people are going through, everybody has unique talents and abilities. The Expo was a chance for the community to celebrate the truly amazing and talented artists and performers.”
The art exhibits also bring to life the lived experiences of the artists. Each artist included a blub about their life or experience, which, Kristie says, was “extremely powerful”. She expects the same this year.
“The one that impacted me the most last year was a painting of a well-known bridge, and underneath the bridge was a tent. The artist said every night people used to drive across the bridge to go home from work but had no idea he was living under it.”
The 2023 Art Expo ran for just one afternoon/evening, and with little publicity, but still attracted around 150 visitors. Almost all the artworks were sold for the artists, with some people choosing not to offer their works for sale.
“We had artists with a variety of mediums including photography, different types of painting, and we had a couple of live artists as well, plus musicians,” Kristie explains.
Kristie says, “Because we held the Expo in the foyer of a working service, there was a tight time limit, but on the other side, people staying in the service were able to come along. We got feedback from residents to say how amazing it was for them to be able to visit the Expo and enjoy the sense of normality and community connection in the midst of struggling with homelessness.
“Facing homelessness can be one of the hardest times of an individual's life, and there's so much stigma. It has a flow-on to things like work too. It’s very hard to make clear decisions when you don't know where you're going to sleep, or don't know where your next meal is going to come from.
“We work as a team to ensure that at the end of their time with us, our community members walk away better resourced, empowered and equipped than when they first came to us. Whatever we do, we walk alongside each individual to enrich their life,” Kristie shares.
“That's the beauty and strength of the Art Expo. It helps us achieve that in a very beautiful and healing way.”
If you would like to learn more about how you can get involved with The Salvation Army’s policy and advocacy work, including homelessness, visit https://www.salvationarmy.org.au/get-involved/advocacy/