Sebastopol gets its first Little Free Art Gallery

We’ve done a couple of stories over the years about Sebastopol’s many Little Free Libraries. But a few weeks ago, Sebastopol resident Brenda Agresti added a new twist to the concept, opening the town’s first Little Free Art Gallery at 7807 Brookside Ave.

Look for the pretty, pale green box with the words “Make, Give, Take” on the front.

Inside are some of Brenda’s and her daughter’s paintings, as well as paintings, drawings, collages, hand-knitted scarves and more dropped off by other people. Her Little Free Art Gallery even has its own Facebook page, where Agresti posts the newest additions.

“I’m not an artist,” Agresti said modestly. “I do it for fun. It’s relaxing. I started painting during COVID with a group of friends out in the backyard. That was sort of my first time painting at all. And soon enough, I started to get a stack of stuff, like a stockpile, and I thought, ‘What do I do with all of this?’”

She was on a walk one day, when suddenly the solution hit her: “We should have art giveaway place!”

Her father built the structure from scrap wood and some leftover roofing materials, and Agresti painted it. (The beautiful flowers on the outside of the box belie her claim not to be an artist.)

Agresti and her neighbors added a few things to the box, and then she posted it on the Facebook group, What’s Up Sebastopol. She was shocked by the number of responses she received. She got over 275 likes and 50 comments on the group’s page.

“I was kind of like, ‘Oh, wow!’ I wasn’t expecting that.” she said. “More people started to come and bring stuff in. It was crazy. I’m glad people are excited.”

“It’s interesting to see what catches someone’s eye,” she said, noting that abstracts are the most popular. Someone dropped off a pretty little pair of handmade earrings and those went quickly as well.

People leave all sorts of artwork in the box.

“I’m just looking for things that are handmade or repurposed,” Agresti said. “It doesn’t have to be a painting, you know, if someone does ceramics or jewelry.”

To help explain the concept, she put up some instructions:

Agresti said she’d like to see more Little Art Galleries around town.

“We have so many artists in town that it would be a lot of fun if there were many of these out and about, just like the little libraries,” she said. “Like on Florence Street, where there’s so much art, and people go there specifically to see that, I think it would be fun to see a Little Free Gallery there.”