An integral part of art is sharing it with others. This encourages the artist to develop their skills, try new things, and helps to create a community and inspire others. Artists and chairs of art communities around the world have noted how a lack of community art can cause a community to fall apart. My hometown of Mount Washington is a small town. We have a library and a museum devoted to local history, but no art museums or galleries. There is no real place to share small art pieces.
In addition, reading local Facebook community pages shows that parents are always looking to find fun local activities for their children. Art is important in child development, both in stimulating creativity and brain development, as well as fine-motor skills.
In other cities, museums, public galleries, and other public art communities have recently begun to set up public art galleries and simple free supplies for new artists and professional artists to share their work in a non-expensive and easy way. Free little art galleries have popped up in Washington D.C.; Phoenix, Arizona; Hyattsville, Maryland; Natick, Massachusetts; Los Angeles; Evanston, Illinois; and other cities across the U.S. These have seen hundreds of little statues, wire art, paintings, drawings and other art pieces come and go over the little time they've been active in their cities.
As said in the Smithsonian Magazine, written by Gil Yetikyel:
Whereas large-scale art engages your whole body, your whole body must engage tiny art: You have to crouch down, lower your gaze, peer into the teeny space. It demands the kind of world-canceling concentration typically reserved for a smartphone.
I loved the idea of Little Art Galleries, and wanted to bring it to Mount Washington, so I have created small art galleries, as inspired by similar projects at findafreelittleartgallery.com, at two of our Mount Washington city park locations.
You can find them at Lindsey Duvall Park and the Mount Washington Sports Complex.
If you visit our galleries, you may find basic art supplies and some tiny art. Feel free to:
If you add a piece to our gallery, take a picture and upload it to our Facebook group!
Use the hashtag #mwtinyart on other social media sites.
Please keep all art appropriate for children in our parks, and we ask that Facebook posts also be family-friendly.
The parks department has requested that there be no supplies that could be used to deface the park, so if you wish to donate supplies, keep that in mind. Good examples of supplies that can be left: