Recently I had the opportunity to visit one of my favorite parts of the US- Colorado. While I was there, my sister and I visited an art-reuse it shop in her town that she hadn’t visited before, and both of us were so glad we decided to go. The store is called “Art Parts” and they are a non-profit organization that supports community and sustainability in the art world.
Many reuse-it stores and art stores that I’ve been to have been extremely disorganized and chaotic, but this store was beautifully organized and well laid out. My sister and I are both artists and were blown away by all of the different supplies available. There were more traditional art supplies such as leftover fabric pieces and skeins of yarn, but also a myriad of other little odds and ends that inspired many project ideas in my sister and I. Tubs of tiny computer pieces, zippers, puzzle pieces, and much more were everywhere.
My personal favorite section was the shelves of pre-used canvases. It was so intriguing to me to look through all of the old paintings. Some were finished pieces while others were stopped halfway through or even after just a few brushstrokes. Some were messy splatters or smears from finger painting and others impressed me with their technique and attention to detail. I couldn’t help but wonder what caused each person to stop in the middle of their painting or to finish it and decide to donate it.
What really stood out to me about this store was their mission toward sustainability. I’m sure many artists are painfully aware of how wasteful and unsustainable art can be, and having the ability to donate one’s unneeded art supplies to supply them to someone else or even reuse and repurpose already used supplies is a really special and important step.
All in all, it was a really incredible day for my sister and I. We both left with plenty of supplies for our next art projects and I would have certainly procured more if I didn’t have to take a plane back to PA. If you want to check out Art Parts and find out more about them, you can find their website here. https://www.artpartsboulder.org/