We are Hiring! Retail, Administrative and Marketing Positions
The WasteShed is hiring for 3 positions based at our Humboldt Park location! Please send a resume with a short cover letter to info@thewasteshed.com.
Work With Us
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Work With Us 〰️
Retail Assistant — Humboldt Location — Position closed
Marketing Manager — Humboldt Location — Position closed
Administrative Coordinator — Position closed
Thank you for your interest! Stay tuned for future postings.
DiscarDisco 2022 Roundup
DiscarDisco 2022 was a smash! The WasteShed’s Third Annual Trash Fashion Runway Show took the stage in front of a small audience on February 10th; we were absolutely stunned by the vision, craftsmanship and variety of the 27 looks that our designers conjured out of their boxes of mystery materials.
Check out our gallery of the 2022 DiscarDisco Runway Show!
Congratulations to our first prize winner Morgan Csejtey, our tied second place winners Madeline Stage and Miranda Barrett, and our third place winner Chris Willliford! Thank you to our photographer Eric Michael Clarke for capturing this dynamic event.
Thank you again to our co-organizers AIBI, and to our sponsors, Ette Tailor, Excel Displays and Packaging, VS Printing, and Letherbee Distillery!
Vote for the People’s Choice Award!
Our People’s Choice Award Winner will be announced March 1st. To vote for your favorite: select or enter an amount to donate in the donor box below, select “Write us a comment” and enter the name of your favorite designer. Donation amounts are not limited, and each donation before midnight on March 28th counts as one vote, no matter the amount. We haven’t gotten very many votes, and yours could make the difference!
We have some incredible prizes on offer in our raffle and silent auction!
Prizes include a professional lighting kit, movie tickets, a carpet from Vintage Quest, paper dolls, Jeni’s ice cream, a distillery tour from Koval, gardening supplies and other growing prizes from Christy Webber Landscaping, glamorous accessories, and more!
DiscarDisco 2022: Detritus Danceteria, now Serving Looks
The WasteShed’s 3rd Annual Trash Fashion Show competition is back with a vengeance this year, with 27 fantastic artists and designers presenting their unique upcycled looks on the runway (and streaming online). The live event, with a runway show, dancing, a silent auction and raffle, make-and-take crafts, and snacks will take place at Beat Kitchen on February 10th at 7pm.
The show is 21+, consistent masking and proof of vaccination are required.
Tickets are sold out, but the streaming live show kicks off at 8pm on Youtube!
DiscarDisco 2022 Work-in-progress shot by Chris Williford
Our Artists:
Morgan Csejtey @morgancsejtey
Katie Schweitzer @katienanna
Amy Jahnke @aj_makes_stuff
Mary Miller @marymiller6101
Paige Humecki @paiges_knits
Madeline Stage @GoheenDesigns
Moizza Khan https://chirpradio.org/dj/473
Alyssa Parlier
Adilene L. Villalpando @adilenev_disenos
Theo Shuler @official.hot.cheeto
Lindsay Heidenreich
Jocelyn Weber @vocelyn
REDEAUX Clothing @REDEAUXclothing
Emily Piff @dagen.made
Su Killelea @dollylava
Jessica Sidelko @bringing_the_bright
Chris Williford @cwilli
Dede Downs @wackywindyweather
Miranda Barrett @whatmirandamakes
Mary Tapia @o_bitty
Marie Wohadlo @fodopro
Avery Chang @OKXKXO
Hila Geller/STAM Apparel @stamapparel
Karen Earl and Betty Scott/Mi Fibershed
Marissa Croft @sinistra.marissa
Jess Crane @JessCraneFashion
Blair Goldman @blairs.wear
Cast your vote for our People's Choice award by donating here and commenting the name of your favorite artist! People’s Choice Award voting will continue until March 1st when we declare the winner.
Our Judges
Iyomi Ho Ken (she/her) is a fashion, fibers, and photography artist studying at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her current work is focused on self, race and the effects of the two. Using fashion as an art form is the basis of her approach. Working primarily through fashion, creating garments that tell a story- while using fibers to communicate through the made fabric, and photography to capture her vision.
With this came a whirlwind of exploration, involving race and color theory in a majority of her undergrad work. Her junior year collection landed her a finalist place in 3 different CFDA award categories. After going through a judging process, she won 2 awards from the CFDA, The Covid Relief Fund and the Coach Dream It Real Scholarship.
Her work has been shown through in person and online exhibition’s and will be featured in SAIC Fashion’s Show in the Spring of 2022.
Lauren Lein Cavanaugh (she/her) is a 25 year Chicago Fashion veteran, her wearable couture ensembles and masks are owned across 35+ states in the U.S., as well as seven different countries. Some of her finest designs are worn by her muse, Sherrill Bodine, as well as many other Chicago notables such as Cook County Treasurer, Maria Pappas.
Whether designing for a store collection or a custom client, Lauren’s fashions reflect an artful, feminine aesthetic. Each design highlights the individual’s unique personality and beauty, and her recent collections are composed of repurposed and eco-friendly fabrics. Lauren is a five-term president of the Apparel Industry Board, Inc. and a proud member of The Service Club of Chicago and the Costume Council of the Chicago History Museum.
Lauren and team are honored to be included in the top fashion Chicago fashion shows of this season, Day on the Terrace for the Service Club, The Chicago Lighthouse Flair Fashion Show, and RevUp Chicago for AIBI.
https://laurenlein.shop/
Leah Andrews (she/her) is a 32 year old jewelry designer based in Chicago. After her Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology at DePaul University, she completed a jeweler’s apprenticeship with BCD INC from 2015-2018. She is a certified jewelry appraiser through the GIA and is currently studying with the Gemological Institute of America to become a Graduate Gemologist.
Rose Mae Turner (“Rosie”) (she/her) is a sustainable swimwear designer and textile artist who started her career in Chicago, she’s currently based in NYC. She is the founder of Rosina~Mae which takes you from “the beach, to the street, to the party.” Ethically produced on demand using recycled, regenerated, vintage, or deadstock fabrics... each collection features patchwork, weaving, and other fun techniques. For more check out www.rosinamae.com
Rosie is also a climate activist involved with Extinction Rebellion, Votes for the Planet, NoNBKPIPELINE, and Remake. She is represented by EcoModels Agency in New York and represented by Ethical Influencers in the UK. She participates in slow fashion initiatives with Fashion Revolution Week and Slow Fashion Season. Rosie loves to share resources on sustainable brands and upcycling techniques; she runs regular chats on upcycling, low waste living, sustainable design, and vintage fashion via the Clubhouse audio app. @rosiemae27 @rosina_mae
Our MC
Kalpita Chakote is an actor and a screenwriter based in Chicago. She was recently in the Season 2 premiere of The Haha Hour at the Hairpin Arts Center.
She won the first place prize $5000 for her dramedy pilot Assimilated in the senior undergraduate screenwriting competition at Northwestern University.
She will be graduating from Northwestern University as a theatre major with a creative writing concentration this Spring.
OUR DJ
The dance party goes late with tunes by DJ BrutalRuby of Birds and B-Sides DJs
Our Sponsors
Ette Tailor
A stylish, modern approach to wedding day dressing: alterations, heirloom revamps, custom design, & accessories perfectly tailored for Your day, your way.
Additional thanks to VS Printing, STAM Apparel, and Anna Jo Beck! Stay tuned for our raffle and silent auction.
The WasteShed's 7th Anniversary: We're Expanding!
On September 4th, 2021, the WasteShed celebrated its 7th anniversary. We are so grateful to our incredible community, staff, customers, board and volunteers for helping us achieve this milestone, and especially for your support in the tumultuous last year and a half. The brilliant makers and teachers we have gotten to know in the last 7 years of running Chicago's only art materials thrift store, and the wonderful work that has come out of the city's excess and discarded materials, are truly awe-inspiring, and we are lucky to be a part of it all.
Between 2014 and 2021, The WasteShed has:
received over 46,000 visitors at our Humboldt Park store
provided over $13,532 of free materials to teachers through our Free to Teachers section, and an additional $79,524 of deeply discounted materials to educators since we started counting in 2018
diverted over 160,000 pounds of reusable materials away from the landfill and back into Chicago's creative and educational communities.
This 80 tons of materials is equivalent in weight to a family of sperm whales, and represents an estimated $1.45 million value to the city's makers and teachers.
A family of whales, illustration by the inimitable Anna Jo Beck
In the spirit of spawning cetaceans, The Wasteshed is delighted to announce a new member of our creative reuse family: The WasteShed Evanston! The WasteShed has partnered with Evanston Rebuilding Warehouse (ERW), with the aim of opening a second WasteShed location in a corner of the ERW's building materials reuse center in West Evanston. This ambitious expansion recognizes that these nonprofits' common environmental and social mission present a great opportunity for collaboration and mutual support (and a lot of really fun projects). Many thanks to ERW’s incredible staff for their support and encouragement during this process.
With your help, we can bring The WasteShed's creative, collaborative, and sustainable community resource to a new neighborhood in November of 2021!
Donate Today to Help The WasteShed Expand!
Donations will be matched up to $15,000 until October 8th, 2021!
Thank you to Dana M Pearl for this generous matching gift.
Recurring donations are especially helpful
Checks can be mailed to 2842 W Chicago Avenue, Chicago IL 60622.
Deeply rooted in Chicago’s Humboldt Park, a racially and economically diverse neighborhood on Chicago’s West Side, The WasteShed's 10 year plan depends on establishing multiple locations around Chicago. Many of our customers make regular pilgrimages from the North Side, and we anticipate a boom in participation as our programs become more accessible to the people who can't easily travel 10 miles to our transit-underserved primary location.
Between 2018 and 2020, The WasteShed’s materials were in use in over 350 schools and nonprofit organizations in Illinois, with teachers visiting from as far away as Oklahoma, and from every zip code in Chicago.
This heat map of the distribution of 247 organizations that make the trip to our West Side location reflects a deep need for the resources The WasteShed provides throughout the greater Chicago area:
Interested in volunteering or otherwise getting involved with The WasteShed Evanston? Email us at evanston@thewasteshed.com
Follow The WasteShed Evanston on Instagram and Facebook
TBT: The WasteShed's 50 Ton Nickel Fund
CELEBRATING 50 TONS OF RAD STUFF
The WasteShed: The First 50 Tons — Video by Tiffani Bauer
—— The following was originally posted in May of 2019——
The WasteShed's 50 Ton Nickel Fund
In June of 2019, The WasteShed will take in our 100,000th pound of donated creative and educational materials, bringing us up to a round 50 TONS of art and school supplies that our amazing staff and volunteers have processed and redistributed within the Chicago community. At the same time, we are looking at a budget shortfall for the summer, just when we are hoping to jumpstart some amazing programs and start working towards expanding our organization into other neighborhoods.
Just for kicks, we calculated what portion of 1 year of Chicago's total waste production this represents, if 365 days equals 13.7 million tons.
The answer is... just under 2 minutes. 1 minute 55 seconds, to be exact.
Is this discouraging? Sure. But, aren't you glad someone is doing this work?
We have estimated the value of the materials we have diverted from the landfill during our first 5 years of operation at $896,800; and in 2019 alone, we are slated to divert 48,000 lbs (another 55 seconds) of materials, nearly 50% of our total to date. Those 55 seconds will provide Chicago's schools and arts community with $432,000 worth of materials. This map shows the distribution of 247 Chicago-area nonprofits and schools that use The WasteShed as a resource:
Because we keep prices accessible for our community, the portion of that value which comes to us as actual income is much smaller, however; we cover about 75% of our expenses through sales, but we rely on grants and the generosity of our friends to fill the gap.
In celebration of our 50th ton, we are asking our friends and community members to donate just one nickel (5¢) for every pound of materials we've kept from rotting forever in a greenhouse-gas-producing landfill, for a total of $5,000. Any amount we receive over this goal will go towards assuring that The WasteShed is a bounteous, accessible, friendly resource for Chicago's artists and teachers for years to come.
Please donate today!
Thank you for all the love! — <3 WasteShed
Distant DiscarDisco 2021: The Winter of Our Discarded Content
The WasteShed’s Second Annual Trash Fashion Show is here, and it’s looking FABULOUS.
Streaming live on Tiltify at 6pm on February 12th, our 17 artists have made silk purses out of the proverbial sow’s ears provided in their DiscarDisco Designer Boxes.
In addition to this heaping portion of talent and artistry, our online audience will have the opportunity to win these fantastic prizes in our Raffle:
RAFFLE PRIZES
All prizes except the quilt (which can ship) are available for local pickup in Chicago.
Raffle tickets are available on the Rewards tab on the DiscarDisco Tiltify Page, get em while they’re hot!
OUR FABULOUS DESIGNERS
DiscarDisco 2021 designers were challenged to make a full outfit from a box of mystery materials from The WasteShed, they documented the creative process on their social media feeds. Click through to their Instagrams to see how they did it!
See their fantastic final products on the DiscarDisco Live Stream, February 12th at 6 pm CST on Tiltify! Donate to support The WasteShed and keep Chicago’s creative juices flowing in 2021!
Object Lessons: Creative Reuse in the time of Coronavirus
Photo credit: John Morrison @localcelebrity
Coronavirus has settled in to American society, bringing hard truths to light and forcing industries to assess how they operate, for whom, and why. Creative Reuse as an industry exists in the tiniest intersection of many big overlapping circles: thrift store, craft shop, educational resource, support for underfunded schools/underpaid teachers, community-building experiment, anarchist collective, circular economic engine, nonprofit-industrial corporation, family weekend destination, climate collapse support group, and center for post-capitalist dreaming. In this intersection, we continuously recombine ideas, ideologies, communities, and aesthetics; we pull apart our own preconceptions and make new discoveries; we get down to brass tacks. A creative reuse center is simultaneously absurd, beautiful, gross, and terrifically life-affirming. We mine the dying world for the materials to build a new one, and we bring everyone along with us: absolutely every person that we can reach.
Another head of a creative reuse center, with whom I share a lot of practical and political perspectives, independently came to the same conclusion about their organization that I did about mine: everything that makes a creative reuse center work and flourish, makes it dangerous and nearly impossible under COVID.
This is not to say that there aren't many, many entries in the "now more than ever" file. Our Humboldt Park neighborhood has already suffered devastating personal and economic losses. Parents are faced with having to entertain and educate their offspring while working, or with greatly impacted incomes. Artists have seen their shows cancelled, day jobs dissolved, and opportunities evaporated. People stuck at home and consumed by grief or anxiety need activities that provide some sense of control and satisfaction, or could be turned into a little more income; affordable creative materials are no substitute for mental health services or a social safety net, but they're what we have. Kids still need to learn that objects don't have fixed purposes, trajectories, or expiration dates, and that all our destinies are unwritten. The planet is not heating any slower, and it remains urgent to create modes of consumption that move away from linear, extractive practices and towards a realization of the full potential of existing resources. These must now, however, be weighed against the potential loss of human life. The very things that made us thrive now threaten our existence.
These are salient characteristics of our business model:
We are, above all, a community place. People come to The WasteShed to hang out, they bring their friends and their families. Small children with runny noses run amok with fistfuls of bottlecaps, elders pull up folding chairs to go through the sewing patterns. Friendships and collaborations form over darkroom supplies, mother of pearl buttons and weathered road maps. Folks drop by sometimes weekly, look at everything, dig through everything, touch everything, ask a lot of good questions. Many of our regulars are older people, people of color and folks who don't speak a lot of English; many are at higher risk for COVID and many would find safeguards like an online appointment system hard to navigate. When people come to see us, sometimes they have a supply list or a goal in mind, but more often they come to learn by looking. Once they have finished looking (our average customer visit, even now, is 25 minutes), their average purchase is $12.
All these things are wonderful during normal circumstances. All of them now put our staff and the community at greater risk of contracting a deadly disease. The newest findings about the role of aerosols in COVID transmission only confirms what we suspected; our inspiration could mean someone's expiration. Trying to launch "safer" versions of our normal operations would make it impossible for us to earn enough to support our mission in a meaningful way. We are not in the same category as the most high-transmission industries, like meatpacking, but there still no way to make our space safe for our regular customer use.
With summer ending, it feels like almost every establishment that is not legally barred from reopening is open for regular hours. Plastic sheets and barriers abound, lines form down the sidewalk, and tape on the floor attempts to mitigate risk by directing traffic. Businesses closed in March because they were ordered to, and because the people who worked there were afraid of getting sick and spreading disease to their loved ones. The threat is still here, but the bone-grinding logic of capitalism has reasserted itself. Businesses that could afford to stay closed for two months could not afford to stay closed for five, and their workers can't afford to quit and stay home. The grocery worker and postal worker were hailed as heroes for continuing to work when our city had 12 new cases a day. The same accolades are conspicuously absent for the barber, the florist, and the donut shop cashier now that all (besides the virtual Chosen) are waiting for their turn to be among Illinois' daily 2,000 new positive tests. Somehow, we as a society have justified and normalized this massacre of our neighbors, mostly working class Black and brown people. We have decided that it's the cost of doing business, and the people in the greatest danger have been forced to fall in line or lose their livelihoods.
The movement for Degrowth teaches us that economic activity is not a good thing in itself; our dogged pursuit of More and Bigger and Newer has left us with a planet that is almost uninhabitable, and a population crushed and disempowered by greed, debt and inhumane wages. Reuse positions itself as an alternative to this insatiable churn: a way to honor the materials, energy, and labor that went into creating our absurdly, dangerously abundant material world. There are not enough of these alternatives around, and we are really, really going to need them in the world that's coming. But keeping reuse organizations open is not more important than risking a human life. In this period of history, there is an abundance of things worth dying for: dismantling white supremacy, caring for the ailing, providing lifesaving resources to the unhoused and impoverished, etc. Reselling used arts and craft supplies is not among these things.
We will continue to run our weekend sidewalk sales while the weather permits, but we will not be returning to regular hours this winter; there is no way to make it safe. Not many people are in the position to make this decision, but we hope that more who can, do, and that their communities come together to support them. We will continue to work behind closed doors to keep our community connected virtually and supplied materially, and taking orders for pickup and delivery. We will not allow profit or peer pressure to dictate the terms of our reopening. It is a cliché for small businesses to say they “love their customers.” This could not be more true for anyone than is for us, but love requires strong boundaries, and these are ours. Much love to our awesome staff and board for all their work on making this possible.
It feels strange to raise funds to do less, but after 6 years of working beyond our capacity and continuously innovating around programming, messaging, and getting materials to people that need it, it also feels healthy and necessary. We’ve redistributed over $1.2 million worth of materials, and when it’s safer again we’ll get right back to it. Your tax-deductible donation will help us bounce back in the spring, better than ever and ready to make the most of whatever comes next.
Donate via Paypal, or email us for other ways to support.
Thank you so much, for everything.
Eleanor Ray
Founder and Executive Director
The WasteShed
Sponsor a Teacher this Giving Season!
Join us in enriching Chicago classrooms this giving season!
Join us Dec. 3rd in launching our Sponsor a Teacher fundraiser this #GivingTuesday!
This year we are asking the public to donate a recurring $25 dollars to symbolically sponsor a teacher.
Why $25?
Based on their own estimations, Chicago educators utilize about $25 worth of FREE materials from The WasteShed's "Free to Teachers" section every time they visit, with each teacher averaging one visit per month.
We have estimated that The WasteShed gives away $1,300 of post consumer materials to about 50 teachers every month!
While we love offering these free materials to educators, it is not without its costs. Our staff and volunteers routinely sort, organize, and reorganize our "Free to Teachers" section because we believe in offering an accessible, easy-to-shop experience... whether you pay for it or not.
To help cover our overhead costs and the resources we devote to our amazing educators, we are asking for YOUR help.
We have set an ambitious goal to raise $15,000 before the new year for our Chicago teachers and educators. While recurring donations are preferred, contributions of any size will go a long way in a teachers classroom.
So mark your calendars and be ready to open your hearts (and wallets) this #GivingTuesday ♥
$100 - 4 teachers
$500 - 20 teachers
$1,000 - 40 teachers
$2,500 - 100 teachers
$5,000 - 200 teachers
$7,500 - 300 teachers
$10,000 - 400 teachers
$12,500 - 500 teachers
$15,000 - 600 teachers
$300 - Covers 1 Chicago teacher for a year!
DONATE TODAY! <— click here :)
♥♥♥♥♥
GivingTuesday is a global day of giving fueled by the power of social media and collaboration.
Celebrated on the Tuesday following Thanksgiving (in the U.S.) and the widely recognized shopping events Black Friday and Cyber Monday, GivingTuesday kicks off the charitable season, when many focus on their holiday and end-of-year giving.
2018 Year in Review
2018 was quite the year…
In 2018, we diverted 33,593 pounds of reusable materials from the Chicago wastestream. That’s roughly 2.5 T-Rex dinosaurs (or one T-Rex family)! It’s also equivalent to a year’s worth of 20 Americans’ personal trash, so think about that…
Keep on reading for our other program highlights and accomplishments in 2018, including:
- Woke and Winning Workshops
- Creative Reuse and Entrepreneurship Youth Program with Chicago Patchwork Farms
-Teachers Resource Project
- Glass Case Gallery
- #FutureSelf Workshop at the MCA
and more!
33,593 pounds in 2018! This year alone we took in 44% of our TOTAL materials donations EVER. Many thanks to our 4 incredible staff and many fabulous volunteers for making this possible.
Many thanks to all of the folks who worked so hard to bring the the 2018 Woke and Winning Youth Action Summer Workshop Series together. Each workshop gave youth and emerging artists, 16-25 years old, the opportunity to learn from local and national activists in the fight against gun violence, and to transform their knowledge into art projects for social justice.
Over multiple sessions we introduced youth to various organizations that use their platforms to promote gun reform. The second half of each workshop offered emerging artists a master art class with our Education Coordinator, Liz Gomez, and a concluding Art-Making for Awareness studio project meant to connect participants to the broader community.
Designed by The National Youth Art Movement Against Gun Violence (NYAM), these workshops featured speakers from these amazing organizations:
The Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence (ICHV)
Ex Cons for Community and Social Change
The Institute for Nonviolence Chicago
Indivisible Chicago
Funding for Woke and Winning Workshops was provided by a generous grant from the Safe and Peaceful Communities Fund.
Why is community-based programming important?
Community-based programming is a way to activate the resources within our community.
When used in areas of learning and creativity, community-based programming can help better address issues of common concern as well as strengthen our ability to collaborate. Our goal is to manifest a creative network that can sustainably engage with our neighborhood and our planet.
Chicago Patchwork Farms & the Wasteshed collaborate
This summer, The WasteShed partnered with Chicago Patchwork Farms’ AfterSchool Matters Summer Program to create a creative reuse and entrepreneurship youth program.
Throughout the course of this program students learned about growing fresh food in urban environments, and explored the obstacles and resources needed to turn a proposed goal into reality while utilizing reused materials and grassroots organization. The program began by asking the students what they enjoyed about their communities as well as the change they wanted to see. From the very first session, students were candid about the obstacles they face in their neighborhoods. Many wished to feel safer on their block, to see a drug free community, more ethnic diversity. and to see less homelessness on the streets. We engaged in dialogue about the sources of these issues and the lack of resources found in predominantly black and brown neighborhood and how to they could be the source of that forward movement. Through group collaboration, they were able to propose and execute a community fundraiser that would brought visibly to the obstacles they face in their neighborhoods and raised money for a local organization.
The Teachers Resource Project is dedicated to making Chicago's educational system more equitable by giving students and teachers the resources they need to succeed. When you donate to the Teachers Resource Project, 100% of your contribution -- after payment processing fees — covers gently-used materials purchased by Chicago teachers at The WasteShed.
Teachers are enrolled to the program as funds become available. Each quarter, teachers in the Teachers Resource Project will receive a $60 materials stipend ($20/month) from The WasteShed. Because our inventory is typically priced at half of items’ retail price or less, teachers can afford twice the supplies they could get if they shopped at a regular store. Since teachers spend an average of $500 a year on classroom supplies, a $20 monthly donation can cover one Chicago teacher's annual out-of-pocket expenses in full.
Donate to the Teachers Resource Project Today!
Thank you to the 56 amazing educators who have e
nrolled so far!
We would like to thank the Chicago Community Trust’s Young Leaders Fund for making this initiative possible.
Glass Case Gallery
Our Glass Case Art Gallery took off this year with the help of The Awesome Foundation!
The Glass Case Gallery is a handsome midcentury jewelry case salvaged from the Marshall Fields in Evanston. So far we have showcased 9 different local artists who works with 60% or more repurposed materials, with a particular focus on emerging artists, people of color, and makers who have never or rarely shown their work before.
The goals of the Glass Case Mini Art Gallery are:
To provide a platform for the many amazing, diverse artists and craftspeople who come through our store, to encourage them to apply their ingenuity to transforming discarded materials into small art, and to allow them to profit from doing so,
To inspire our customers and demonstrate the awesome power and potential of so-called trash,
To create conversation, collaboration, and connection among the folks who we currently know as customers and neighbors, but who are becoming a new kind of creative community.
These cuties were part of the amazing Jo Jo Baby’s show earlier this year.
#FutureSelf Workshop at the MCA
We taught a workshop at the Museum of Contemporary Art in September! It was cool!
Many thanks also to the Lumpkin Family Foundation and the Langer Foundation for their support!
We look forward to a bounteous and vivid 2019, thanks to our friends, customers, donors and collaborators. If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation to support our work, you can do so here.
Thank you and happy holidays!
-The WasteShed Team
5 Ways to support your local Creative Reuse Center during Spring Cleaning (and all the time)
The Official WasteShed Blog: Post 1
May is the biggest donation month of the year here at The WasteShed. To keep the flow of donations from becoming a tidal wave, we have some suggestions for folks looking to rehome materials with us.
Pretty please:
1. Consult our donation policy
We accept a limited range of materials; if you're unsure about whether we will take something, please call (773 666 5997) or email (info@thewasteshed.com) and we'll be happy to approve your donation or recommend another place take your materials. If we have to say no or stop taking donations for a week or so, please know that it's for good reason.
2. Organize your donations
Sorting donations is very labor intensive, and when we do that labor, it is far and away our biggest expense. A mixed box of pipecleaners, thumbtacks, paperclips, beads, and felt scraps could take us an hour to process and get us about $3 in resale value; even with volunteer help this doesn't make sense economically. If you can sort and even label your donation (and cull the really useless stuff) before you bring it in, you will be doing a tiny nonprofit a huge favor!
3. Volunteer
Come lend a hand! Short of snuggling puppies at the shelter, this is the most fun you will have volunteering. We always need people to shuffle, triage, identify, organize, and sort materials, and our volunteers get store credit for hours worked. Call or email and we'll figure out a time that works for you!
4. Buy your supplies here
We make 80% of our revenue through sales of materials (and 0% of our revenue through accepting donations of materials). When you come through the shop, take a moment to look around! The shelves are stuffed with incredible treasures, useful tools, and weird doodads of every description, and we have the best prices you'll find in Chicago.
5. Donate dollars to support our work
The WasteShed is a vital resource for education and the arts in Chicago. We love what we do, and we want to keep making great things happen in our community for as long as we can. Even $20 can help us pay our amazing staff (Happy International Workers' Day, all!) and keep our programming and resources accessible to everyone. Donate here via PayPal
-Much love, The WasteShed