Gathering for Women is hosting its second annual online art fair, featuring work by the nonprofit’s guests.

Three years ago, Dee Steiner started teaching weekly art classes at Gathering for Women. A local artist at Monterey’s Venture Gallery, and already an established volunteer, the classes presented a way for Steiner to share her skills with the clients Gathering for Women serves. It fit in well, she figured, with the other services that the nonprofit provides to women who are homeless or at risk of homelessness – meals, showers, clothes and other support.

“I decided to start doing art that could take the women away from everything that was going on during the day,” Steiner says. Those classes, though there was a pandemic hiatus, are still going strong.

The two-hour class typically starts with a short history lesson about a well-known artist (think: Van Gogh, Monet, etc.) before the painting part begins.

Artist Zerra Vaughan, who started attending classes last year, calls them a therapeutic break from her life living in her vehicle. “It’s just very relaxing,” she says. She attends every week – it’s something to look forward to.

“They have very distinctive styles,” Steiner says of the work the women produce. Some choose to portray the natural world – there are meadows, ocean scenes, canyons and forests – while others focus on the human form. Steiner offers guidance on composition and technique when it is requested.

“We want [the women] to have that feeling of a sense of accomplishment,” she says. “We have so much fun doing it.”

Now the Gathering for Women artists have an opportunity to feel another sense of accomplishment, one that comes with selling their work. About 60 pieces of work made by women in Steiner’s class, as well as a class taught by Program Director Evangelia Ochoa and pieces donated by 38 professional local artists, currently make up the second annual Gathering for Women online art fair. Works by GFW guests are priced between $25 and $75, and the money from sales goes to the artists. Donated pieces, meanwhile, are being sold as a fundraiser for the nonprofit.

In 2020, the art fair brought in more than $3,200 to support GFW operations and $1,200 to the guests. Vaughan was able to put the money she made into a needed oil change.

The art fair also provides a way to connect people. “We’re always looking for ways to bring the community into understanding what Gathering for Women does,” Steiner says. What better way to do that than over art?

GATHERING FOR WOMEN’S ART FAIR is viewable (and works are for sale) virtually at gatheringforwomen.org