Art as a powerful vehicle of change.
Huma House is an arts organization in Los Angeles. Our vision is to illuminate artists from sacred pockets of the world to reveal truths that will lead nations into peace and youth into their own personal power.
We are a community led grassroots movement that actively addresses the crisis of incarceration at hand through powerful alternatives. Through our art exhibitions, garden workshops, mentoring, and summer programs we provide creative methods of care to system impacted youth and previously incarcerated people. Our focus is twofold:
Our Exhibitions: Huma House holds art up as a global mirror to reveal the injustices of incarceration to the world and as a radical tool to heal. We do this through our exhibitions. Artists absorb the darker truths of our world and transform them into shimmering visual objects. Huma House uplifts these objects on a global stage so these truths will be revealed, felt, and drive positive change.
Our Teen Program: Our youth experiences are designed and implemented by mentors with lived experience. We create diverse workshops that help the foster teens blossom into their true capacity. We put our hands in the earth to heal, recreate ourselves through art therapy, and partner with local entrepreneurs to lead teens towards confidence, inspiration and connectivity.
The organization is named after the mythological Huma bird which is an archetypal bird found in all different cultures like the Sankofa of Africa, the Quetzlcoatl of Aztec legend, and the Phoenix from the West. The Huma alights in flames only to be reborn from her ashes and is in constant orbit around the globe looking to bestow her people with care and spread the message of Love.
Giving care and unifying our community through the power of art.
Huma Heals
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Huma Heals 〰️
Gary Harrell, leader and Huma House artist
Huma House harnesses the power of art to tell real stories of incarceration and to transform the lives of system impacted youth. We have put together 5 exhibitions with 15 system impacted artists and led 30 at risk youth in a 6-week rite of passage program where mentors with direct experience lead teens to find empowerment through creativity and care.
We connect artists and teens that are historically under-represented to financial resources, community, and entrepreneurship.
Gary Harrell used the funds he gained through his art sales to found Showerworks Inc., a nonprofit that gives unhoused a second chance at a first class life. Providing shower facilities to unhoused of Sacramento, California.
Huma lifts the leaders of a new era to speak.
The Youth Program
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Unique Approach
Our innovations are radically unlike anything that the private sector or public institutions have conjured. We pair violence prevention skills that are relevant in the streets with creative art and gardening workshops. This unique pairing results in high engagement and diversion away from incarceration
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Lived Experience
We have the authenticity and authority to work in partnership with our community. The program is designed by the founders and mentors who have experienced incarceration or who intimately understand the experience growing up in an environment with difficult obstacles
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In-depth Quality Care
Our mentors and volunteers provide consistency, stability, and individual care to each teen that comes through our program. We understand the full picture of each person’s situation when they enter and tailor the program to meet their interests
Huma House breaks the school to prison pipeline by harnessing the power of art
The Exhibition Program
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Activism and Art
We use art as an empathy machine that puts a spotlight on the injustices of the justice system and shifts public opinion on incarceration.
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Amplifying Voice
We provide a mode of re entry to previously incarcerated people by investing in their artwork and providing a stage to tell their story. We curate art shows that tell the realities inside prison and coming home afterwards.
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Providing Entrepreneurship
Providing mentorship to guide artists towards becoming a career artist by selling their artwork, connecting them to grant opportunities, and financial resources
