Join us this month for Center Sundays for a public drop-in demonstration led by artists on methods of dissecting, cooking, pressing, shredding and other techniques that are used to produce new art materials out of organic and inorganic substances. A Hack-a-Thon! This all ages event will allow the public to create materials and discover the value of transformation. This Center Sundays is in conjunction with our “Future Fossils: SUM” exhibition by Lan Tuazon. Proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test 72 hours prior is required to attend this event. 

Workshops

Harvesting Roots Workshop with Tulika Ladsariya

The Harvesting Roots Workshop with Creative Wing artist,Tulika Ladsariya will invite people to bring in recycled glass vessels (pasta jars, bottles, etc) and create dot art mandalas on them. In the workshops- we would create a sensory immersive experience through the Sanskrit meditative shlokas, burn incense and use paint with household tools- to create mandalas and build synergy in a group. After decorating our vessels, we will learn to propagate cuttings in water to grow popular, easy-to-care-for houseplants. Other than learning to reuse waste and turn it into art, participants will literally grow roots and be invited to share cultural stories of harvesting. The outcome of the workshops will be symbolic in helping participants root living things they can nurture, reinforcing the idea that home is a place that is first, within.

Creative Chicago Reuse Exchange Workshop with Kathryn Trumbull Fimreite 

Creative Chicago Reuse Exchange teaching artists will be on site demonstrating a number of projects: how to deconstruct unwanted 3 ring binders, folders, notebooks and other discarded school supplies and convert them into Imagination Journals, how to convert rescued vinyl banners that often line the streets of Chicago and convert them into a Recycled Pencil Case, and how to reuse plastic election signs to create a loom and then using a combination of all sorts of household materials to create a Zero Waste Weaving.

The Weaving Mill 

The Weaving Mill is an artist-run industrial weaving studio in Chicago that blends design, production, education and research-based practice. With a focus on deadstock, odd-lots and thoughtfully-sourced materials, they design and make projects of their own, as well as in collaboration with other artists and designers. In this workshop, the TWM team and members of the W.E.F.T. program (Westtown Education for Textiles, a handweaving program for adults with developmental disabilities) will be knotting together scrap and waste yarns to create a brand-new, recycled, and one-of-a-kind yarn which will be woven into a fabric whose texture and pattern highlight the bits and pieces of off-cuts and scrap that it is composed of.

Newspaper Wood Demo

Learn how to roll sheets of newspaper onto a wooden rod using glue to create newspaper wood with Ruth Levy! With a lot of patience, the result is a large log that can be milled like wood, and each cut has a unique grain with the bonus feature of dispersed written letters and colors from the newspaper.

Info Tables @ Hackathon

alt space

alt_ space’s Sunday Service is a once a month volunteer initiative that mobilizes volunteers to beautify the community of Austin block by block by cleaning up visible trash while sharing how to cultivate and utilize visual literacy and low-fi materials to re-imagine the community. Through this service they quickly found that within a day, trash would begin to pile back up because there are very few public trash bins on the block as opposed to other communities where there is a bin on every street. Utilizing recycled pallet wood and donated Plexiglass, the alt_bins serve as an investment both in people and in the environment as a functional art installation. These bins are created as tools of independence, so that neighbors can serve neighbors while at the same time, be conscious of the environment.

The Wasteshed

The WasteShed provides Chicago with an organized, affordable, and reliable resource for repurposed art, craft, and school materials, and with a dynamic center for activities related to sustainability, art, craft, education, and material culture. They connect Chicagoans who are interested in: living more sustainably, seeking inspiration in unconventional materials, getting the most out of the resources they have on hand, or just making projects at a low cost. While sustainability is the ultimate goal, creative reuse foregrounds practical, economical, and fun hands-on activities as points of entry into larger discussions about the things we own, and the way we live.