Open doors

Kate High works for Transforming Youth Recovery, typically writing grants and doing other work for the nonprofit in Reno, but this summer she stumbled into a new project called Doors to Recovery.

I met with High at a storage unit where she said they were keeping the doors for the project. As she opened it up, I saw gorgeously painted and decorated doors propped up throughout the unit. She described it as “her own little gallery,” and her passion for this project and organization was very clear as she jumped around from door to door explaining what each artist had done with them.

Doors to Recovery is an art project where local artists and others have taken old doors from Lear Theater and made them into works of art depicting what recovery from addiction is to them. Some of the artists include Erik Holland, Bryce Chisholm and Carol Foldvary Anderson.

“These are all antique doors from a historic building, which is part of Reno history, and they've been transformed into these wonderful, beautiful things,” High said. “And to me, that tells the story of an addict who has the disease, who has no control over their own ability to use or not use, and they're taken and given some love and nurturing and they blossom into this beautiful person, which they always were, but they're not able to do that while they're in this disease. That's what has happened with these doors, and every single door is different and every single door has become this beautiful thing that tells a story.”

The doors were donated by Artown, who owns Lear Theater, as part of a trade for the pews that are now in the theater. Stacie Mathewson, founder of TYR, had the pews stored in the same storage unit prior to the trade.

The doors will be displayed for the duration of Artown in nine locations throughout town, which can be found on their website. They will later be auctioned off at the Nevada Museum of Art on Aug. 9. The proceeds will go to TYR, Artown, Nevada Recovery and Prevention Community (N-RAP) and Tour de Nez. Tour de Nez's Bubba Melcher will host a Tour de Doors—a bike tour of the doors—on July 19 to see as many doors as possible.

High said the goal of this project is to spread the word about three things pertaining to addiction and recovery.

“This is a disease, it's not a moral failing,” High said. “It's really not a moral failing. It's not a choice. The only choice you get is the first drink or the first time you use, and after that your disease kicks in and takes over. And the second thing is about the work that Transforming Youth Recovery is doing. And the third reason is to raise money for local nonprofits.”

TYR does work throughout the country mostly with youth recovery but also with recovery in general. One of the projects is to give seed funding of $10,000 to 100 sober communities in educational settings around the country, like N-RAP. TYR believes it's important to work with addiction and recovery for youth in educational settings because it's the best place to get a hold of young people and help them with this disease.