The Valentine Project

In 2021, Gather:Make:Shelter launched VALENTINE, a collaborative art exhibition at our storefront location in the Pearl District. The event featured artwork gifted by local artists to the C(3)PO villages (Creating Conscious Communities with People Outside). The artwork served as housewarming gifts to individual village residents and GMS participants crafted Valentine’s day thank-you cards to artists in return.

In 2020, Gather:Make:Shelter partnered with the coalition C(3)PO as a response to the pandemic and continuation of our mission. Together, we formed three COVID-safe shelter-in-place outdoor communities: BIPOC, Queer Affinity, and Blended Villages. By 2021 many of the C(3)PO residents had transitioned to more permanent alternative shelters, purchased by Multnomah County. VALENTINE was a city-wide art exchange and exhibition in partnership with C(3)PO and hundreds of local artists; the project created beauty, inspiration, and connection for previously unhoused members of our community involved in these programs.