Overview
Huma House, a 501.c3 organization located in Los Angeles, California, was established with the knowledge that art exhibitions can serve as a potent activist tool. Their core mission revolves around the belief that art can be a transformative force, providing alternative healing methods that guide nations towards peace and enable youth to tap into their full potential.
Initially gaining prominence for their powerful and thought-provoking art exhibitions, Huma House was bolstered by profound community support. These exhibitions not only showcased the talent of artists but also illuminated the pressing issues faced by grassroots movements. With the sustained support from the community, these exhibitions expanded, and Huma House began spotlighting artists from these movements on an international stage.
In addition to their art exhibitions, Huma House runs an art education program in South Central Los Angeles. This program provides local teens with tools and opportunities to express themselves through art.
Co-founded by Meetra Johansen and Tobias Tubbs, Huma House continues its commitment to the community and the transformative power of art in South Central Los Angeles
Our Pledge
We pledge to change the future by declaring the present
to use art as a force to serve humanity and to better people and our earth
to open ourselves to compassion - seeing the darkness in ourselves and thereby seeing the light in others
to question practices fueled with hate and use art to dismantle them
to be humble enough to listen and learn from unlikely teachers
to untangle ourselves from fear, using the strength of our collective will
to build the world we want to live in using the power emanating from our palms and the hands of the artists we represent
to listen to the earth and use our creativity and art to advocate for its health, giving it the medicine it requires
to stand in front of an artwork and witness the germination of global and generational change, which begins with the unlocking of our own heart.
- Meetra Johansen, Co-Founder
Our Truth
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We envision a world where all beings are free from incarceration of the body, imprisonment of the mind, and suffering in the heart by joining together to utilize the most powerful source on earth - love.
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Our mission is to use art as an activist tool and provide alternative modes of healing that lead nations into peace and youth into their true capacity.
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Our values are Trust, Community, and Empowerment. We explore them in one of our Arlington Heights teen garden workshops. When a seed is planted it must trust that there is light on the other side of the soil to meet it. It needs a community of roots, bugs, and nutrients around it to gain strength and push through the other side to life. Lastly it is the seedling itself which must push through with its own power to feel the face of the sun, the gift of the rain, and relief of the wind. Each artist that goes through our exhibitions and each teen that goes through our program finds their own light and power through trust and community.
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Meetra Johansen
CO-FOUNDER + CEO
Meetra is a social entrepreneur and art world leader. She brings together a combined curatorial experience from Gagosian Gallery in New York, and galleries in both Europe, Latin America, and Indonesia. Meetra mounted major curatorial projects all over the world and developed resources and programs for emerging artists to bring their artwork to the world. She is deeply dedicated to the using art as a catalyst for transformational change and shifting the paradigm.
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Tobias Tubbs
CO-FOUNDER + HEAD OF HUMA RESILIENCE PROGRAM
Tobias is an activist and community leader. He spent 30 years incarcerated. He was released and commuted due to the thousands of men whose lives he helped transform as a certified trauma specialist. He got the law changed for Life without Parole in California — giving second opportunities to individuals to live a life beyond the walls. Inside prison he was a curator of art and mentor to the artists of the Lancaster Art Room. One year after his release he founded Angel City Urban Farms which builds gardens + providing healing for formerly incarcerated people.
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Genea Richardson
INSTRUCTOR OF HUMA RESILIENCE PROGRAM
Genea is the voice of women’s re-entry. She provided healing for hundreds of women inside prison during her 18 years of incarceration through radical listening workshops. Less than a year after her return back to her community she became a conduit for change by leading restorative justice workshops. She architects our youth program and designs experiences that inspire teens to blossom into their full capacity.
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Los Angeles County
We are a proud awardee of funding from Los Angeles County through the Commission on Human Relations
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Fractured Atlas
Our fiscal sponsor when we first started out allows all donations to be 100% tax deductible. They help individual artists and arts organizations by providing funding stewardship.
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Big Dogg Gang Prevention & Violence Intervention
Our collaborators who provide the teens for our care. They are experts in preventing violence, operating out of South Central Los Angeles
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Hot & Cool Cafe
Our collaborator who has donated their space to run our classrooms and rotate our art exhibitions.