The latest addition to the Route 1 corridor’s little free art gallery is a shed filled with free art supplies.

Located outside Art Works Now in Hyattsville at 4800 Rhode Island Ave., the Little Free Art Shop was a brainchild of founder Barbara Johnson, who noticed during the coronavirus pandemic that some students did not have art supplies at home.

“It’s a shed where people are free to donate and/or take supplies at no charge 24/7,” she told the Hyattsville Wire. “And often we stock it ourselves with basics like watercolor paint sets, brushes and things like that.”

Johnson said she has seen people both taking and leaving supplies from the shed since they put it up, and the mother of one student, Betsy Martin, who is an award-winning art director and designer, volunteered to paint it. Donations of all general art supplies can be put into a bin at the bottom of the shed, where they will be sanitized and sorted.

The supply shed complements other efforts by Art Works Now during the pandemic such as holding online classes. It joins Little Free Libraries along the Route 1 corridor, as well as Little Free Art Gallery and a Little Free Food Pantry.

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