Vickie Frémont

The Recycled Art Program is, very simply put, a workshop-type activity in which recycled materials become educational tools and art.  As examples, bits of fabric and cardboard are turned into picture frames, discarded wire hangers become the bodies of dolls to be positioned and dressed.  The possibilities are endless.

 

The impact of the program, through four years of activity with children of different ages as well as adults, has been immeasurable.  It has been successfully used and adapted:

 

• In hospitals and clinics with (Health professionals/Patients/People in therapy)
• In private schools
• In public schools
• In libraries
• In high schools and colleges
• In churches and with private individuals or groups 

 

The program is open-ended, has no fixed limitations and encompasses many fields of human endeavor:

 

• Introduction to music (the workshops are always conducted against a background of music)
• Introduction to reading (whatever the level, a bibliography is distributed and books are  on hand for perusal)
• Introduction to other art forms (painting, sculpture, textile design, etc.)
• Information concerning other school subject matter  (geography, science, history, etc.)
• In a general way, the Recycled Art Program contributes to a positive attitude towards and concern for the world we live in.   It is an educational tool for student awareness.

 

The program can be adapted for primary school children, high school and college students, teachers, parents, seniors, people working in stressful occupations. It can be considered a distraction or recreational activity but also as training for work with young people.  It has been of particular interest to those involved in the fields of education and health.

 

 It has been shown that the program facilitates inter-generational contact and exchanges.  Creating something from ‘nothing’, art from what many would consider trash, is not only a worthwhile undertaking but one that brings mutual pleasure and understanding.

 

Finally, this activity can contribute to exchanges between members of the same family, between different communities, even between different countries.  It is ‘exportable’, for example, in cultural exchanges devoted to music, art, poetry as well as other fields.

 

The Recycling Art sessions provide a glimpse into a world we think we know but actually ignore.  I often ask the children and adults attending the sessions if they have noted the outfits that Africans in the street are wearing only to discover that they look at others without really seeing them.  The Recycling Art Program is a voyage embarked on to reach other people.  Not only do the participants create objects to be proud of, they have communicated with others on hearing the name of a new country, the sound of a musical instrument they had never heard before:  a Cora, a Balafon. made from nature’s bounty, from gourds for example.

 

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The Recycling Art Program went to :

 

- Fashion Institute of Technology (NY)

- City College University of New York

- Museum of African Art, Washington DC

- Museum for African Art, New York

- American Museum of Natural History (NY)

- Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (NY)

- Wyckoff Farmhouse Museum (Brooklyn)

- Bank Street College of Education – New York (NY)

- African Burial Ground Monument - New York (NY)

- Parrish Museum – Southampton (NY)

- The Brooklyn Historical Society – Brooklyn (NY)

- Hudson River Museum – Yonkers (NY)

- New York Public Libraries

- Private Schools (Dalton School, Allen Stevenson , Lycée Français...)

- African Burial Ground Monument  (NY)

- Community Works (NY)

- 2 Hands 2 Learn Yonkers (NY)

- Art to Grow (NJ)

- Arts Horizons (NJ)

- Pelham Art Center (NY)

- Bronx Museum of Art: African arts and crafts workshops for kids and adults.

- Harlem Children's Zone; TRUCE

- North General Hospital New York (NY)

- Ralph Lauren Center for Prevention for Cancer New York (NY)

- Museum of Biblical Art – New York  (NY)

 

 

 

Professional Development for Educators:

 

- New Perspective (Division of Continuing Education for Bank Street College of Education).

- Metropolitan College of Education (NY)

-Teaching College of Columbia