MISSION

Connecting art and community to build understanding, inspire empathy, and spark civic engagement.

ABOUT YELLOW HOUSE

Yellow House is a place where art + action creates change. The space serves as a catalyst for personal and collective growth by displaying thought-provoking exhibitions, hosting public events, and promoting community dialogue. Yellow House will explore topics as varied as racial and gender equity, universal human rights, environmental sustainability, and the untold stories of people and neighborhoods that have shaped our history. Yellow House is more than a physical space; it is a hub for educational outreach and collaborations among artists, writers, organizations, and communities..

ABOUT THE NAME

After returning from WWII, Hope McMath’s grandfather moved to a house in Toledo, Ohio; he painted it yellow. McMath described the home as the center of her family’s orbit and a place where, watching her grandfather and uncle, became politically conscious and more connected to the arts. When she found the house at Phyllis and King streets, several people in the neighborhood described the seemingly colorless house as “yellow.” She was struck by the connection to her grandfather’s home.

Yellow House has ties to art history as well. In 1888, Vincent van Gogh rented a house painted yellow in Arles, France. His desire for company and a sounding board guided him to turn the space into a “studio of the south” where artists could live and work together. He created some of his most beloved paintings to decorate the house, including “The Night Café,” “Starry Night over the Rhône,” and four sunflower canvases.

“Every community needs a Yellow House.” Hope said.

ABOUT THE LOCATION

Yellow House shares community with the CoRK Arts District, the campus space that houses an 80,000 square-foot warehouse which is home to close to 70 artists and related businesses. The hub for Yellow House activities sits between two sides of Jacksonville intersecting at the Riverside, Lackawanna, and Mixon Town communities, and places Yellow House on the edge of communities that are integral to the history and future of Jacksonville. Although these communities have been historically divided by race, economics, and the segregated legacy of Interstate 10, within this radius lives some of the city’s wealthiest and poorest citizens; new and fashionable restaurants and stores sit only blocks from decades-old, historically owned black businesses; Baptist churches are a stone’s throw from one of the region’s only Buddhist faith centers; and, several public schools, parks, and a community center form boundaries. Although Yellow House aims to impact the larger region, it hopes to make a difference in the communities that surround it, with input and leadership from these same communities.

AT THE HEART OF YELLOW HOUSE SIT THE FOLLOWING BELIEFS:

ARTS AND HUMANITIES ARE VITAL to creating a more socially connected, cohesive, and just world.

PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT in arts programming builds bridges between people, provides a platform for free expression, and gives voice to the creative assets in a community.

INCLUSIVITY AND ACCESS mean truly representing the diversity of our communities in the artists we work with, the audiences we attract, the partners and individuals who shape the organization, the vendors we hire, and the art and stories we lift up.

LISTENING AND LEARNING are important to the practice of art as social action and, when done intentionally and deeply, will guide the work.

BRAVE AND GRACIOUS SPACE fosters free expression, the creation of socially relevant art,  and the process of building relationships between people and communities.

ARTISTS ARE IMPORTANT partners in creating a better community when they are valued and fully integrated into civic discourse.

ART MAKING IS ESSENTIAL to well-being and becomes more valuable when it leaves its pedestal to become part of one’s everyday life.

COLLABORATION provides a more meaningful, artful, and joyful way for cultural institutions, social justice organizations, and artists to fulfill their missions of positive transformation.

ART AMPLIFIES TRUTH and serves as a tool for social justice by bearing witness to a diversity of lived experiences and countering false narratives and dehumanization with authentic representation of people, cultures, and under-told stories.