Paint N Sit ATL has grown from a five-person paint-and-sit gathering into a wellness-focused nonprofit that has reached tens of thousands of people, and the next chapter is already moving beyond Atlanta. On July 23, 2026, a report said the group is preparing for an upcoming trip to Liberia to provide art supplies and programming for children.
For Elijah Wade, the expansion began in one of the darkest stretches of his life. He said he had left school while playing college basketball, came home as a new father and did not know what to do next, but painting with friends helped him through it. From that experience, he said, came the first Paint N Sit ATL event at Old Fourth Ward Skatepark, launched with art supplies from Dollar Tree and a simple invitation for people to paint and sit together.
That idea has since turned into a steady draw for people looking for relief, even when they have never painted before. Wade said therapeutic art is a positive coping mechanism, and he described the events as open to people of every age, background and skill level because the point is not technical ability but connection. Rashad Muhammad said the gatherings became an unexpected source of healing after his wife lost her mother, while Jade Croslan said she had been attending for the past two years because she wanted a place where she could be herself and accepted as herself.
The work has also stretched far outside the setting where it began. Since founding, Paint N Sit ATL has held events in public parks, libraries, festivals and communities across Georgia and beyond, and it has even brought programming to the United States Penitentiary Atlanta. That reach helps explain why the organization is being watched now: it is no longer a small local meet-up, but a nonprofit built around the idea that a canvas, a room and a little time can help people carry stress, grief and isolation a little more lightly.
The unresolved question is not whether the concept found an audience. It did. The question now is how far a model built on shared painting, and on people who often walk in saying they do not know how to paint, can travel as Paint N Sit ATL takes its next step into Liberia.
