Eureka’s Giving Gallery Invites Everyone to Take Something—or Leave Something

The Giving Gallery at 3125 P Street in Eureka offers original artwork free to anyone who stops by. Visitors can take a piece home or leave a small original work for someone else to discover. [Photo by Josh Stein]

There’s a new little gallery in Eureka, but you don’t need to worry about its hours, whether you’re dressed appropriately, or even whether you have any money.

In fact, you’re supposed to take the art home for free.

Artist Josh Stein has installed The Giving Gallery at 3125 P Street, where a small wooden cabinet sits along the street offering original artwork to anyone who wants it. The gallery is open 24 hours a day, and people are also welcome to leave a small piece of original art for someone else to find.

It’s a simple idea, and a rather lovely one.

Stein puts his own artwork in the cabinet, but other artists and community members have begun adding pieces, too. That means what’s inside depends in part on who has stopped by lately—someone takes something that speaks to them, someone else leaves something behind.

There’s even a guestbook where visitors can record their encounters with the project.

The little signs on the front explain pretty much everything you need to know: “The Giving Gallery” on top and, along the bottom, “All Art Is Free.”

The idea didn’t come out of nowhere. Stein has experimented with giving art away through earlier projects, including The Giving Project and Artwork for Another. He also has an ongoing project called Art Abandonment, which involves leaving original artwork in public places for strangers to discover and keep.

The Giving Gallery gives that idea a permanent home.

Stein intends it to stay in the neighborhood rather than disappear after a temporary exhibition. There’s no appointment to make, no admission to pay and no need to knock on anyone’s door. The cabinet is accessible from the sidewalk whenever someone happens by.

And you don’t have to be an artist to participate. You can simply open the door, look inside and, if there’s something you love, take it home.

Then perhaps someday you—or someone else—will put something back.

It’s a small thing sitting beside a Eureka sidewalk. But in a time when almost everything seems to come with a pretty price attached, a little cabinet filled with art that strangers simply give to one another feels pretty special.