Art Gallery Sparks Community Engagement in Florida

The Yellow House art gallery in Jacksonville, Florida is a unique civic space committed to connecting art with community building through partnerships and outreach. For one community member, the Yellow House gallery was also his lifeline. In 2022, he started making regular visits to the gallery’s Community Cart which offers free fresh produce, books, art supplies, messages of encouragement, hygiene products, plants and other items. In August 2022, the man stopped by the Yellow House on the same day it was co-hosting a community health event with partner organization Amplifier. When he saw the mobile clinic offering free health screenings, he immediately registered for a check up. “Nobody made me sign up for anything, preached to me about their church or tried to sell me something,” he told a Yellow House community partner. “Y’all really just wanted to help me take care of myself.”

Funding for this effort is made possible through a subaward from the CDC Foundation and is part of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) financial assistance award totaling $2,500,000.00 with 100 percent funding from CDC/HHS. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement by, CDC/HHS or the U.S. Government.