Gifts From the Margins

Want to do some good while shopping for gifts this holiday season? Buy and give outsider art. ArtRod’s new gallery, Critical Line (741 St. Helens, 253.444.2741), is exhibiting — and selling — the work of homeless artists in a show called “Nativity House,” after Tacoma’s only daytime drop-in shelter. Michael Lent, curator of the show, says the idea began to grow when, late at night, he’d drive by the Tollbooth Gallery, ArtRod’s public video-art project. Often it was homeless people at the Tollbooth windows, viewing and discussing the art.

“It’s important for us to show the work of artists both in and outside of the museum-going community,” says Lent. “Nativity House’s guests are dealing with issues that most artists are not. Nonetheless, the work here is not far off the ‘outsider art’ appreciated around the world.” ArtRod hopes to make this an annual event and to secure sponsorship for it, so that artists can receive 100 percent of their sales. Most of the work is made in the art room at Nativity House (nativityhouse.org, 253.272.5266); if you want do some good year-round, get involved and support this agency with a mission and a heart.