We visited the vast and impressive warehouse of Materials for the Arts today under the guidance of the charming and knowledgable Antonio Ponton-Nunez.

We at True Love Productions had a load of costumes saved from our 2009 production of Coraline. It was time to donate. We drove out to Long Island City to the home of Materials for the Arts, where Antonio met us at the loading dock.

Up an industrial, freight elevator, into an enormous and amazingly organized collection room we went. Our costumes safely deposited, Antonio began our tour around the facility.

Surrounded by photo ops, we passed through a woven wonderland, past a classroom full of young students learning about reuse, and into a gallery currently hung with the show : “Reuse Remixed: Small Works Show”.

These are works commissioned by MFTA–the rules for this particular show: Artwork must be created from materials received from MFTA, and each piece must be wall-mountable and of a prescribed, diminutive scale. All art is for sale, affordable and highly covetable. Runs through May 9th. One of my favorites:

…untitled (Lamb)…
Media: photograph, mirror, lamb, plexiglass in book 

Past the gallery, we entered the main “shopping” room: A vast space lined with shelves, racks, and bins full of an endless array of materials: ribbon, fabric, toys, buttons, mannequins, furniture, paper, paints, metal, plastic, wood, screws, masks, ornaments, pillars, bicycle parts, feathers, and more and more and more…

We happened to be in the warehouse during “shopping” hours, and were able to see artists, trolling the isles with their shopping carts, selecting the materials they needed. “Shopping” in quotes because all of the materials are free for any qualified and registered artist or organization. (Click for qualifying info.)

In short:

If you have things, send them here.

If you need things, apply here.

If you suffer from a need to sort and organize, volunteer here.

If you’d like to learn about creative reuse, click here.

I’m so happy to have found this organization. It helps keep our apartments from being overrun with “stuff”. It keeps “stuff” out of our landfills. (Tons of it!). It gets “stuff” to the folks who need it. It educates our next generation about all of those needs. It is truly and uniquely New York!

More images from the day:

…from my visit to Materials for the Arts…