Art exhibition takes over York shop windows to raise awareness of city’s young homeless

The youth homelessness charity SASH is launching an art exhibition to raise awareness of its work supporting homeless 16-25 year olds in York, North and East Yorkshire.

The exhibition at the Castle Museum will take the form of an art trail across seven venues in York and will run from 24 May to 05 June.

With entries by artists aged from ten to 67, the trail will feature more than 40 works which all share a unique common theme – each piece started life as a simple cardboard box and was entered into the SASH Art Competition, Cardboard boxes are not for sleeping in.

Tina Firthlock from SASH explains: “The association between homelessness and sleeping in cardboard boxes on the street is a strong one.

“We wanted to highlight the hidden problem of youth homelessness by emphasising that cardboard boxes can be used for many things, but sleeping should not be one of them.

“The response has been phenomenal – every single piece is so different, interesting and thought provoking.

“We have been overwhelmed by the support of the Castle Museum and York St John’s University in helping to make this happen and would like to thank them and all the businesses that were keen to support something so unique and special.”

Works across the city

Celebrity interior designer Linda Barker helped launch the competition on World Homeless Day last year and will be part of the judging panel to select the best work from the exhibition.

SASH is looking forward to sharing the art work via the trail and giving the public the chance to learn more about the difficulties and issues surrounding homelessness.

The start of the trail will be hosted in the new community room at the Castle Museum, and the exhibition continues with works in windows at

• According to McGee, Tower Street
• Lock Fix Security and Coverdales Opticians, Walmgate
• St Pauls Bookshop, Fossgate
• Barnitts, Colliergate
• Make Your Mark on Goodramgate

Full details of the exhibition and trail venues are here.