How Kokomo’s Smallest Art Gallery is Making a Huge Impact

BY HEIDI PRUITT

The Kokomo Post Staff

Located in Highland Park is Kokomo’s newest and littlest art gallery.

When Lesley Wysong, a volunteer curator at the Kokomo Art Center, came across the phenomenon of Little Free Libraries while scrolling through social media, she was taken with their goal of making books available for the public at any time and at no cost. Her passion for art sparked a similar idea.

The newly built Little Free Art Gallery, located in front of the Kokomo Art Center in Highland Park, is a way to allow the community access to art and supplies to create their own masterpieces.

But unlike other art galleries, this one can be visited 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

“It’s a way of connecting people. It can spark them to be more creative, share ideas and be more confident. I think if I can make it fun and accessible, then people will be interested in creating,” said Wysong. 

Inside the small “building,” built to resemble Art Center located directly behind it, you can find new and gently used art materials, words of encouragement from fellow artists and works of art to leave, trade or take home and enjoy. 

“I thought it would be a good opportunity to get people creating. Maybe it will give them something fun to do, something that’s free and isn’t intimidating.”

“People think art has to be perfect, but I wanted people to feel like they can just try something out,” said Wysong.

The Art Center, which closes its building to the public from December to March, thought it was important to keep art accessible and free to the public, especially through the winter. 

The Kokomo Art Center at 525 W. Ricketts St., Kokomo, has been a part of the Kokomo Art Association, which was organized in 1926.

Continuing the legacy of the fellowship local artists had in the members’ homes in the early 1900s, the Kokomo Parks Department provided a building located in Highland park in 1987 to not only house a growing permanent collection of art from the Association, but as a space to conduct meetings and host art classes for the public to join.

Wysong said the Kokomo Art Center hopes the Little Free Art Gallery will encourage new artists to put their work out to the public and share it with others.

You can learn more about the Kokomo Art Center by visiting https://www.kaaonline.org/kokomo-art-center.