Nicole Brandt Minyard: The Art of Reclaiming Your Story

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About the Episode

Founder of Daybreak Arts Nicole Brandt Minyard joins The Hope People Podcast to share how art, faith and service learning can transform lives, helping people reclaim their hope, dignity and community.

Challenging stereotypes. Reclaiming confidence. Acting in faith.

What began as a student-led art project in a Belmont University classroom has grown into a thriving nonprofit, Daybreak Arts, that creates artistic and economic opportunities for people experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity.

“Art gives people a creative outlet, but it also allows them to share their gifts and perspective with the community,” says Nicole Brandt Minyard, Daybreak’s executive director. “It’s a great vessel to bring together people who may not typically find themselves in the same room or find themselves in the same place, and we can get to know each other deeper.”

Nicole highlights her journey of faith, resilience and vision — proving that beauty, when fueled by hope, can illuminate even the darkest circumstances.

This episode covers…

• The connection between beauty, creativity and social justice.
• How Nicole uses art to help those in need reclaim a sense of identity. 
• The future of Daybreak Arts — and the power of starting small.

Seeing the Unseen through an Artistic Lens

Nicole Brandt Minyard’s passion for serving the unhoused began in high school, when she first visited homeless encampments and realized how creative and resourceful people could be — even in crisis. 

“They were just so much deeper and more complicated people than the things that I had heard,” she admits. “I became really passionate about wanting to change the stereotypes and share with the community how talented and creative our neighbors were that were hidden right around us.”

When Nicole arrived at Belmont in 2010, she began hosting art days through the University’s Center for Service Learning. Students and unhoused neighbors gathered to create together — painting, writing and making music. 

Those artistic afternoons became the foundation for what would one day become Daybreak Arts, where creativity and community walk hand in hand.

“Oftentimes when you are experiencing poverty and injustice you feel like you don't have a voice and that other people are telling your story,”  Nicole explains. “You become really desperate to want to be able to share your side — and art is that pathway for so many people.”

At Daybreak Arts, creativity becomes a bridge — linking artists, students and community members who might otherwise never meet. Through collaborative art projects, participants work to build trust, confidence and healing.

Nicole shares examples of such transformation, including artist Edwin Lockridge, who once created art on the streets using discarded materials. What others viewed as trash, he found still held beauty — a metaphor for his own experience at the time. 

Through Daybreak, Edwin was able to exhibit his work in the very gallery that had once denied his father entry due to segregation. 

“It was this full circle opportunity where he was getting to live out this dream of being an artist in ways that his Dad maybe didn't get to,” she says. “He was literally able to reclaim these spaces. And that Daybreak was able to be that bridge for him to be able to do that was so special.”

Building Daybreak: From Vision to Movement

As a Belmont alumna, Nicole credits her faith and education for helping her see calling as a convergence of passion and purpose.

“Your calling is where your greatest desire meets the world’s greatest need,” she remembers learning. “That’s what Daybreak Arts became for me.”

She shares how her professors and mentors at Belmont encouraged her to lead boldly and build something from her heart. That foundation became a model for how she now leads artists — creating safe, supportive spaces where people can “learn and grow and fail and get better and then eventually succeed.”

When Nicole wanted a name that reflected renewal and light, she rebranded her nonprofit from Poverty and the Arts to Daybreak Arts.

“So many of our artists say it feels like they're starting new, it feels like they're getting to start afresh, they're getting to leave behind this identity of homelessness and step into this identity of artists,” she explains. “Daybreak represents that.”

The organization’s sun-inspired logo, adapted from a painting by one of their artists, symbolizes new beginnings and hope. 

“Being able to shine light on injustice — this metaphor of light, of a new day and new beginnings — all of that resonated so much with our artists,” Nicole says with pride.

The Hard Lessons of Leadership

Running and rebranding a nonprofit for over a decade has taught Nicole many lessons in faith, resilience and teamwork. She explains she learned to rely on others — to surround herself with people whose skills complement her vision.

“One of the most important things I've learned is building the right team,” she says, admitting she learned the hard way that she can’t do everything. “Hire the right staff, get the right volunteers motivated and take ownership, recruit the right board members with the right expertise.”

Balancing big-picture dreams with day-to-day challenges hasn’t always been easy. Funding remains a constant test of her faith, but Nicole’s determination hasn’t wavered. 

“Many people asked if I started this with a trust fund,” she laughs. “Nope. I had a job at McDonald's at 16 paying for my own gas, and I’ve been hustling ever since.”

Nicole believes true change begins with relationships. Her service-learning roots at Belmont taught her that empathy must be lived, not theorized.