Can creativity help pull people out of homelessness? Nashville non-profit "Poverty &The Arts" thinks so.
"Even though I was homeless, I still worked every day. People didn't know I was homeless at the job because I would come to work early and be ready to work," said Gwendolyn Johnson.
Johnson is an artist.
"All my paintings have a story," she said.
Johnson's own story includes homelessness. She says at 50-years old her life was forever changed when she connected with "Poverty &The Arts."
Nicole Minyard is the founder of the non-profit.
"Art kind of breaks down those class lines and allows us to become equal particularly in populations that we're not used to being in community with. [Art] broadens your perspective of what it means to be homeless and what it means to be human and how talented so many members of our community are," she said.
At "Poverty &The Arts," featured artists can sell their work -- helping them get back on their feet.
"One of the things that we realized is there wasn't a marketplace for them to sell those works and earn much-needed supplemental income here in Nashville," she said.
Now the walls are covered in artwork and the quarters are cramped. With 12 active artists, Minyard says they need more space and are launching a campaign called "Hope has a New Home" to expand and help people discover the artist within.
For more information on their campaign and to see all the artists' work click here.
