The trend of placing a Little Free Library in front of your home/school/business and filling it with books is such a feel-good story—barren boxes or those filled with water-stained dregs from someone's basement notwithstanding—that it's surprising variations on this haven't happened: Canned Goods Rejected by Your Children Cupboard, Clothes That Your Kids Wore Once and Then Never Grabbed From the Bottom of Their Dresser Drawers Boutique, Sporting Goods I Thought I Could Sell for More Than I Was Offered Shoppe.

But Pittsfield Township's Shawn Bungo and Ann Arbor's Marie McMahon Parmer recently launched clever variations on the Little Library ideal by offering free art.

Bungo's Take Art Leave Art box is a continuation of one he had in Knoxville, Tennessee, before he and his wife moved to Michigan in 2019, according to this article in Concentrate. He's a flame-worked glass artist and Bungo has hidden some of his pieces around Ypsilanti, but it's probably easiest to acquire his work via bungoglass.com. 

Parmer's Free Little Art Gallery was inspired by fellow artist Stacy Milrany, who created one in Seattle, Washington. It was a family affair, too, as Parmer's husband, created the box outside their home in Ann Arbor.

The mini-art galleries are located at the following locations:

Take Art Leave Art, 4547 Hickory Pointe Blvd., Pittsfield Township
Free Little Art Gallery, 1511 Pauline Blvd, Ann Arbor

You can follow both places online to see what's happening in the world of free art micro galleries:

Take Art Leave Art: Instagram, Facebook
Free Little Art Gallery: Instagram

If someone would build me a box, I'd happily start a Please Take As Many of These Outdated Electronics As You Can Carry Depot.

Christopher Porter is a library technician and the editor of Pulp.