Central City Hospitality House Community Arts Program

Hospitality House takes great pride in its Arts Program. It is the only free-of-charge fine arts studio for homeless and poor artists in San Francisco. Each year, the Community Arts Program (CAP) offers more than 250 artists the materials and space necessary to create, house, exhibit, and sell their artwork.

But more than the art that is made here, the CAP is a progressive and crucial component of the programs offered at Hospitality House because it helps relieve the intangible, private effects of poverty. For those navigating through the impersonal social service system, self-expression and imaginative talent can be stifled and ignored. The CAP exposes people to creative resources that would otherwise be unobtainable to them. These materials are the tools that provide an often-neglected outlet for creative freedom and, subsequently, they serve to enhance self-esteem and ambition.