MILWAUKEE — A city-wide street art installation is bringing attention to a hidden crisis: youth homelessness, specifically in the LGBTQ+ community.
Courage+, Wisconsin’s only licensed provider of LGBTQ+ youth housing, has partnered with the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design’s (MIAD) Community Partnership Program to create “Unsheltered“, a collection of five, full-sized cardboard beds crafted by local artists placed around Milwaukee.
Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson says “[these] beds represent a real youth right here in Milwaukee who is struggling with where they’re gonna sleep tonight, who doesn’t have a place to call home, that is not safe and on the street.”
“Many of those youth, approximately 40% of them, are members of the LGBTQ+ community. These are kids many times who are rejected by their families, who are caught in systems that fail to protect them”. Some of these homeless youth are as young as 12 years old.
Each bed is uniquely designed to reflect the imagined personality of an unseen child, including imagery of native Wisconsin flora and fauna to tributes to trans teens through objects of self-discovery and transformation—symbols of the safe spaces every child deserves.
“Every bed placed across Milwaukee represents a young person whose life has been destabilized simply for being who they are or who they love,” says Courage+ co-founder and executive director Brad Schlaikowski.
“Together we are sending a message to LGBTQ youth in Milwaukee and across our state: You’re not invisible. You’re not alone. And you are deeply, deeply valued.”
The beds will be on display at Colectivo 68th & Wells and Colectivo Lakefront, Cathedral Square Park, Lakefront Brewery, and Catalano Square until June 2nd.
