One Seattle neighborhood has received a unique and creative surprise from one of their community members. Artist Stacy Milrany missed visiting the beautiful art galleries and museums in the Seattle area, and missed sharing the joy of art with fellow art lovers. So she started thinking of a way to mitigate these issues and came up with a brilliant and safe idea: she would create a mini art gallery outside her house for passersby to enjoy.

She got the idea from the nationwide “Little Free Library,” a nonprofit that erects wooden boxes for neighborhood book sharing. Milrany constructed her own similar wooden box and placed it outside her house. Inside the box she placed a tiny easel and shelves for artwork to be displayed on. She wanted it to be an interactive community project, so she invited visitors to take the artwork they found inside and replace it with a piece of their own creation, although replacing the art isn’t a requirement.

She shared her first installment titled “Cat Hair” on Instagram on in her neighborhood’s Next Door group, and within a few days 10 different pieces and been placed and traded amongst the community. These days the art inside the little gallery gets changed out about 5 times day. Since she opened the gallery in December, over 100 pieces of art have been displayed and taken by the community. Of the popularity her idea has received, Milrany says:

“It makes me feel like I’m helping in some kind of way, especially at a time when loneliness multiplied in the past year because of the pandemic. It’s getting people to go out to see what their neighbors are contributing, and people who put their own artwork that gets claimed know somebody has enjoyed their little masterpiece.”

Milrany shared with CNN that the gallery has hosted a variety of art forms, from paintings, to sculptures, to collages. She is thrilled that her gallery has provided the opportunity for local artists to showcase their work. If an artist signs their name, Milrany takes a picture of the display and tags them on Instagram in an effort to help these arts get noticed and their work promoted.

Her hope is that more communities will be inspired by her idea and will copy it by making their own Free Little Art galleries.