St. Matthew’s House presents Faces Beyond Homelessness Art Exhibit

Published on September 25, 2025

St. Matthew’s House presents Faces Beyond Homelessness Art Exhibit

Exhibit open to public October 10 through November 5, 2025

Naples, FL— September 25, 2025 — Homelessness is a heartbreaking reality that not only causes untold human suffering but also impacts the very fiber of our society. When life delivers insurmountable challenges, homelessness can happen to any of us —whatever our walk of life — without a helping hand and path from crisis to contributor.

Among those struggling with homelessness are individuals and families finding themselves without shelter for the first time in their lives. They range from mothers with children, senior citizens and young adults to those displaced by financial catastrophes and natural disasters.

For 37 years, St. Matthew’s House, a Naples-based non-profit organization, has been extending that helping hand daily to offer hope and healing to hundreds of individuals experiencing homelessness throughout Southwest Florida.

St. Matthew’s House now is sharing the personal stories of 10 of these individuals and their journey from homelessness to hope for the future in the exhibit Faces Beyond Homelessness. The exhibit is open to the public October 10 through November 5 at the Wendy Wagner Fine Art Gallery, located in the Naples Art District at 5760 Shirley Street, #3 at Artisan’s Plaza. Exhibit hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 12-5 p.m. On Wednesday, November 5, hours will be extended from 12-8 p.m. for the Naples Art District Art After Dark event that takes place from 5-8 p.m.  

The beginnings of Faces Beyond Homelessness emerged during a conversation on the need to create better public understanding of those who are homeless, the factors that cause it, and the people experiencing homelessness. The conversation included representatives from St. Matthew’s House, Collier Community Foundation and The Women’s Foundation of Collier County.

 

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FACES BEYOND HOMELESSNESS

Faces Beyond Homelessness features beautiful and moving charcoal and red chalk portraits and preliminary sketches done by artist Wendy Wagner as participants shared their stories. Wagner has sensitively captured the many telling expressions seen during the sharing of each story.

“I’m so grateful to be a part of this exhibit,” says Wagner. “Before I moved to Naples, I was involved in a program in Philadelphia where I taught art to students from an organization called Project Home that was created to end the cycle of homelessness. It seemed like synchronicity when St Matthew’s House found my work. I hope my drawings can tell the stories of resilience, strength and hope that the participants so willingly shared in order to further the mission of St Matthew’s House.”

“When communities pull together to address the issues that lead to homelessness and work on innovative solutions, lives are changed for the better, families reunite and communities become stronger,” says St. Matthew’s House CEO Ben Bridges. “Our shared humanity is being called upon to see, to know and to reach out to those in our community — to our neighbors — who have no safe refuge, no place to call home. This exhibit will bring their stories to light. We are hopeful that this powerful exhibit will create heightened awareness and understanding of the many faces and stories of homelessness. Then we can work together as a community to provide a united hand up to our homeless neighbors so that they will have a path from crisis to contributor.”

For information on the exhibit, visit https://stmatthewshouse.org/faces/ or stmatthewshouse.org.

About St. Matthew's House

St. Matthew's House is a faith-based 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization that, for over 37 years, has provided innovative solutions to help those experiencing hunger, homelessness, and addiction in Southwest Florida. The work of St. Matthew’s House includes the five pillars of food assistance, homeless shelters, addiction recovery, transitional housing and workforce development. St. Matthew’s House has developed a unique social enterprise model as part of their job training and workforce development initiatives. Social enterprises include thrift stores throughout Southwest Florida, Delicious by Design commercial catering and LuLu’s Kitchen, an open to the public restaurant. Social enterprises also generate income to help fund operations.  For more information, visit www.stmatthewshouse.org, call 239-774-0500 or follow the organization's social media and YouTube pages.

NOTE TO EDITOR: Please see link to portrait images and cutlines below:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/lwgsp9980xhyr8p4bfbyo/AFDEKMDP2xK7BOawd4NfrlA?rlkey=b43lvxn7d0qgjglghqkprbh2x&st=6kyzucho&dl=0

  1. Many are first time homeless.
  2. Those who are homeless include mothers with children.
  3. Those who are homeless include senior citizens.
  4. Artist Wendy Wagner working on Faces Beyond Homelessness portraits.
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