Hello Friends! As you know, Barbara Oswald, founder of Mount Baker Neighborhood Center for the Arts, is undergoing some serious difficulty this month. We are fundraising to help cover the costs of her medical expenses, rent, and utilities after a month of being closed without the ability to sell artwork at the gallery for income. 

Almost a month ago, Barbara rushed to California to care for her brother Jerry who was suffering unexplained grand mal seizures. Barbara is Jerry's legal guardian and needed to be with him as his medical advocate. After much difficulty and testing, the cause of the seizures was still not found and Jerry was put in an artificial coma.

Barbara's ex-husband Rodney joined her in California to help and unfortunately they were almost immediately in a very serious car accident. Barbara and Rodney were rushed to the same hospital as Jerry. Barbara has been released and is okay, but Rodney suffered a very serious spinal injury, surgery, and faces a difficult recovery. 

With Barbara's gallery closed for several weeks, we have managed to pull together some volunteer staff and get the gallery back open. Unfortunately the volunteers are not set up for doing sales and Barbara has lost a month of gallery income, in addition to medical expenses she now faces.

Barbara has been an advocate for human rights, social justice, and people with disabilities in Seattle for decades. Now, running a neighborhood art gallery in South Seattle, she provides opportunities for emerging artists, with special focus on artists from underserved populations such as artists of color, refugees and immigrants, and artists with disabilities.

Barbara loves her South Seattle community and we'd like to help her through this rough time, as well as support her expenses for one of South Seattle's few art spaces, and one of the only spaces in Seattle providing true opportunities for artists of all levels and abilities.

If you need to reach me with questions, I am Lauren Davis, neighbor and volunteer at MBNCA, and please feel free to send me a message.