UPCOMING EVENTS
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LOOSE THREADS & RAW EDGES
September 3 - November 1, 2026
Opening Reception
Thursday, September 3, 2026
5:30-7:30PMGallery Hours
Saturdays & Sundays 12-4pm or by appt1335 NW Kearney St.
Portland, OR 97209Adornment is often reserved for aristocracy. The common person is expected to wear plain colors and utilitarian shapes meant for labor; clothes that blend in. In Loose Threads & Raw Edges, the GMS Collective explores adornment as identity. The exhibition celebrates our artists’ love of color, texture, and responsiveness to material. These creations are meant to be seen and felt. They are the antithesis of the erasure many of our artists experience in our capitalistic society.
Funded in part by the Regional Arts & Culture Council and the Arts Access Fund.
NEWS
New GMS Headquarters in Pearl
We are all alight with excitement over our new headquarters in NW Portland donated by Killian Pacific!
INTERLACE Community Weaving Project
In October we participated in Portland Textile Month by launching the INTERLACE Community Weaving Project.
GMS Receives Light A Fire Award from Portland Monthly!
We are so excited to report that Gather:Make:Shelter has received a Light A Fire Award from Portland Monthly Magazine presented by the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust! They have recognized Gather:Make:Shelter as the nonprofit “Doing the Most with the Least”.
Hygiene Hub Collaboration
In August we embarked on our first public art collaboration with Hygiene4All to design a hygiene station in SE Portland built and operated by people experiencing houselessness.
GMS Academy Updates
We held a COVID-19 emergency fundraiser in March which made it possible for our Academy artists experiencing houselessness and poverty to purchase essential supplies. They deeply appreciated this act of generosity from the GMS community.
Oregon ArtsWatch: "Artful solutions to foster community"
Oregon ArtsWatch recently featured Gather:Make:Shelter’s Founding Director, Dana Lynn Louis’s newly installed privacy fence screen titled "Ripple Effect" designed for two temporary shelter-in-place villages on SE Water Avenue.
C(3)PO Coalition
In April Gather:Make:Shelter joined with twelve other local organizations and two government offices to support our unhoused community with the opening of three shelter-in-place sanctioned camps in Portland, collectively referred to as C(3)PO.
Street Roots: "The art and activism of Dana Lynn Louis"
Street Roots featured Dana’s exhibition Weave at the Russo Lee Gallery, which touches on the relationships she’s built through Gather:Make:Shelter.
Gather:Make:Shelter in 2018
Read about the ways Gather:Make:Shelter connected our community in 2019.
SuperThank Radio features Dana and Gather:Make:Shelter
Dana talks about Gather:Make:Shelter on the SuperThank podcast.