Goodbye
Dear FREE HART friends, the time has come for this project to move on. Our last day of operation at Semilla Cafe will be September 25, 2026.
THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH for everything you’ve poured into this project. To everyone who volunteered to staff the space, to everyone who donated supplies for other people to use, to everyone who contributed financially to help us keep our doors open and offer workshops, to everyone who hosted a workshop, to everyone who told a friend about us, to all of you — we couldn’t have done this without you.
Yes, you can continue to donate and shop at FREE HART until our last day! Anything left when we close will be redonated to another one of the art supply swaps in the state.
free hart Points of Unity
Mutual Aid is Abundance in action
We believe that scarcity has been manufactured. There is an abundance of resource when we share our bounties.
Like a gardener who has grown more food than they can eat or store, FREE HART is a place where you can redistribute your abundance.
FREE HART exists to push back on the capitalist impulse to hoard materials.
Power to the People
We believe deeply in democracy. We believe that the people hold the power and thus should control how power is weilded. Community controlled institutions ensure that the people most impacted are the ones with the power to make decisions.
FREE HART is 100% volunteer run. We are artists, crafters, and hobbyists using our resources to support each other.
Conscious Consumption
The second-hand industry diverts waste from landfills and incinerators and reduces carbon emissions. Choosing to swap one new item for a used item can reduce its carbon emissions by 82%.
While the second-hand industry itself relies on overconsumption in the new market, it’s definitely a small contribution to our planet’s health to shop used before new.
Art is a Human Right
There is a belief that mutual aid can only be crisis work; that it can only exist to meet our basic survival needs. We believe that art, and the desire to create, is a human right that is just as essential to our survival as food, water, shelter, and safety.
What does it look like for us to thrive, not just survive?
Adults Deserve Creative Spaces
FREE HART is for adults.
We firmly believe that adults deserve creative space. We love to see folks connecting with their inner child when shopping for supplies in our space.
We LOVE children AND we believe that adults deserve care and expressive freedom too.
Solidarity NOT Charity
Mutual Aid is the foundation of FREE HART. We are not a charity. We believe that redistribution and building relationships with each other is how we will survive late-stage capitalism.
“If you have come here to [save] me, you are wasting your time. If you have come here because your liberation is tied up with mine, then let us work together.” -Lilla Watson, Indigenous Murri visual artist