2024 Steve Lowenstein Trust Award
This is the presentation of the 33rd Annual Steve Lowenstein Trust Award.
The Steve Lowenstein Trust Award was created to honor individuals who make an exemplary personal sacrifice and commitment to make a significant difference in improving the quality of life for the most distressed and vulnerable populations in the City of Portland.
The Lowenstein Trust is proud to announce its 33rd annual award to Dana Lynn Louis for her tremendous commitment to using art as a means to foster hope and rebuild community among people struggling with homelessness and poverty in the City of Portland.
Dana Lynn Louise has been a practicing artist for over 35 years. Eight years ago, she recognized the potential to share her skills as an artist with those experiencing homelessness as a way to build relationships, improve understanding, and restore the sense of belonging that is so critical to people transitioning off the streets.
She founded Gather:Make:Shelter (GMS) in 2017. What started out as a one-year project to engage unhoused people in pottery painting has grown into an organization with tremendous community support and multiple creative initiatives. Gather:Make:Shelter has partnered with more than 23 local community-based organizations and worked with more than 2,800 people on a range of public and private artistic place-making projects that feature the work of people experiencing homelessness. Among the projects, GMS has partnered with the City of Portland to create welcoming spaces in the Safe Rest Villages, GMS recently launched programs that engage unhoused and recently housed people in drawing and print-making classes.
As one community partner explained, ““Dana’s heart is so big. Her work is so responsive to those she is serving. People may not recognize the importance of place-making and building relationships, [these are] the first things people lose when they are on the streets, and something they have to recreate to sustain them.”
The Lowenstein Trust is part of the legacy of Steve Lowenstein, a model of public service who worked at local, state, and national levels. Steve’s sense of purpose, integrity, and perseverance continues to inspire many who work to advance human rights and social justice today. Before he died in 1990, Steve’s created an annual award to recognize and financially assist an individual whose personal commitment serve the poor and underprivileged in the City of Portland. For more information about the Lowenstein Trust, please visit our website: https://lowensteintrust.org/
List of prior recipients is attached.