funders
Our heartfelt thanks go out to these funders for their deep support of la house.
Your contributions have been instrumental in helping us create space for healing, transformation, and growth through creativity.
Thank you for believing in our mission and helping us make creative change in our community.
partners
featured past collaborations
supporting the lawrence educational system
Since 2014, la house has supported Lawrence Public Schools by offering expressive arts programming rooted in art therapy and trauma-informed practices. Our collaborations have ranged from after school programs at the Arlington school and the Hennessey school, to pop-up art studios at the International School, Enlace, and RISE Academy. We also partnered with both the School for Exceptional Studies and the Guilmette school to deliver enrichment classes for their students. A shout-out is due to the Guilmette for trusting our vision for 7 years! Our work at the schools and pop-ups around the city affirmed to us that our vision of making creativity accessible can meet the need of our community to have a safe space to nurture authentic self expression. Many of our pop-ups at the different schools had the intention to be seeds, with each partnership’s blossom providing fruits and seeds for mutual growth. We now nurture these seeds at Phoenix Academy Lawrence.
open studios at island street
From 2016 until 2022, 50 Island Street was our home. We became a part of the community of artists that was there at that time, and opened our space to the community as part of the Open Studios at Island St. Getting to create with our neighbors from upstairs, around, and beyond was inspiring, and the connections created here gave us opportunities to see and hear our neighbors’ experiences and their thoughts about the value of having a creative art studio open to residents of all ages.
rainbow alianza
RAINBOW ALIANZA Rainbow Alianza is a group of Queer and Trans (QT/TLGBQ+) people and their allies within the Lawrence, MA community who endeavor to create events and safe spaces that nurture and strengthen this community. la house has been a partner and collaborator with Rainbow Alianza since the latter's inception — supporting through every step of the process in dreaming and crafting events and experiences for the community.
the nan project
One of our most treasured connections, The NAN Project, is an organization that uses a peer-to-peer model to promote mental health awareness and suicide prevention programs for young people. In 2018, the NAN Project stepped in to provide the necessary funding for us to provide art therapy support for the community at Phoenix Academy to process the tragic, traumatic events of the 2018 gas explosions in Lawrence. We are deeply grateful for their support. This community healing process is what laid the framework for the Makerspace that was later to come. Since the start of our collaboration in 2018, we have provided creative and artistic experiences for people to deepen their relationship and understanding of mental health and suicide prevention. Since 2021, we have also supported The Nan Project by hosting their peer mentors for workshops at the Makerspace in which we design hand-made table centerpieces for their annual fundraising gala.
think — create — march
Over the years, one critical support la house has been able to provide the community with is a space for people to be in community and process together the impact of injustices, providing our materials and tools for folks to make signs to join multiple protests and manifestations.
We have been proud to help people make art to amplify their voices at marches such as the Women’s March (2016, 2017, 2018), UN DÍA SIN INMIGRANTES (2017), the Walk-out Against Gun Violence at Lawrence High School (2018), and the March for our Lives (2022).
piranhas crew
Our first international collaboration allowed us to host Piranhas Crew, a group of Colombian women street artists, whose fierce message denouncing femicide and uplifting female voices, guided us in how to use public space to shape community conversations about these issues. In return, in 2018 Piranhas Crew hosted La House artists Jenna and Fernanda in Medellín, Colombia. La House artists, along with Piranhas Crew, and the Sirenxs, facilitated art therapy workshops at Centro Colombo Americano, reflecting upon consent and relationships, and creating a mural denouncing the sexual exploitation of children due to the sex tourism/sex trafficking that takes place in the city. This collective of artists also created a commemorative mural in the barrio Santander, in Comuna 6, to honor the lives and labor of women social leaders from the community who fought to maintain peace and process the violence and inequality that has affected this area of Medellín.
pop-ups
Thanks to funding from the Lawrence Cultural Council, we were able to host creative art sessions at beloved neighborhood coffee-shop and bookstore, El Taller on Saturday afternoons for a season. We hosted an Altered Book Club, working with anyone who came into the business and had some time to spend altering and transforming books into our own creations. In collaboration with YouForward, the Common Sage, and Children Friends and Families, la house also had the opportunity to facilitate 3 rounds of photovoice sessions, enabling youth to identify a common theme to be recorded and reflected upon through photography, writing and visual arts while working in a supportive art studio culture. Photovoice is a methodology that engages participants in a process where their voice and perspective on their experiences of their community is explored through photography.
andover bread loaf + multi-partner collaborations
In a joint effort with Andover Bread Loaf (ABL), from 2016 to 2019, we hosted after-school and summer programming sessions at Manos Felices. Manos Felices offers an after-school program for elementary-aged children who are residents of the Hancock Courts and Stadium Courts housing projects in Lawrence, MA. With their youth, we co-created expressive arts sessions, exploring multiple tools of expression ranging from theater, play and visual arts. In partnership with ABL and the Lawrence Public Library, we facilitated a tiny-free-library workshop, artistically intervening upcycled tiny-free-libraries designed by local artist Carola. Since 2017 la house has been a creative partner to Andover Bread Loaf, deepening the experience of their writer’s workshop attendees through art-making.
crow patrol
Every winter, a marvel of nature lands in Lawrence. A multitudinous confluence of crows comes to roost in our city, every year without fail. Craig Gibson is a local crow enthusiast spreading knowledge and appreciation of this phenomenon through his Crow Patrol. In 2019, working with ABL writing leaders, La House guided young artists from the Boys and Girls Club to be in creative relationship with the crows that come to visit this land, and to create an art show in their honor. Click the image on the left for a link to a video from the crow patrol. We love the crows!