Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Exhibit Looks Back on Decades of Art at City's 'Creative Reuse' Center

 Materials for the Arts has been equipping the city's nonprofits with free art supplies since 1978.
Materials for the Arts Exhibit
View Full Caption

LONG ISLAND CITY — Since 1978, Materials for the Arts' (MFTA) supplies have been used by thousands of organizations to make sculptures, school projects and even stage designs for shows.

The 35,000-square-foot warehouse in Long Island City bills itself as the city's "creative reuse center," salvaging leftover art supplies and other materials from donors and offering them, free of charge, to nonprofits across the five boroughs.

The program is looking back on its history with its first retrospective exhibit, which opened Wednesday night and features newspaper clippings, photos and artwork that was created with MFTA supplies.

"So much of our story is told through our members and what they create," said Olivia Roldan, the organization's marketing coordinator. 

MFTA started in 1978 as a program of the Department for Cultural Affairs, an effort to support nonprofits by cutting down on the cost of art materials by collecting surplus supplies from donors.

"[It's] this idea that people have things and people need things," Roldan explained.

Later, under director Susan Glass, MFTA began to emphasize its environmental benefits — it diverted 1,630,000 pounds of materials from the waste stream last year, according to its website — and today also receives funding from the Department of Sanitation.

"[Glass] really realized that it was not only about the arts, but it really addressed an important environmental issue," Roldan said. "That reuse was so much more than just the creative portion of it, that it could actually have a real impact on the environment."

The MFTA warehouse on Northern Boulevard is filled with supplies culled from donors like Marc Jacobs, The Guggenheim and The Met. Its shelves hold bins filled with paper, beads and fabric, while other sections offer lighting, lumber and office supplies. 

Its use is open to nonprofits that offer arts programming, and MFTA has approximately 4,700 members which include well-known organizations like The Whitney, The Noguchi Museum, Symphony Space and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

Puppeteer Basil Twist used materials from MFTA to help create the set for one of his shows, and artist Jane Dickson — known for her mosaics on display in the 42nd Street subway station — has also utilized items from the program in her work.

The warehouse is also open to teachers. A social studies class at P.S. 209, for example, made mosaics out of beads, buttons and other items on used CD cases from MFTA for a lesson on the difference between rural, urban and suburban environments.

MFTA members can access the supplies for free, and are only required to provide a thank you letter to the donor who provided the goods — a number of which are on display as part of the current exhibit.

One letter, dated 1978, is from the New Museum, which relied on MFTA supplies in its early days and refers to itself as "a new institution with limited funds."

"Every donation has special significance," it reads.

"MFTA loves NYC: A Retrospective of Creative Reuse" will be on display through June 20 in the gallery of MFTA's warehouse at 33-00 Northern Blvd., 3rd Floor. It will be open Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.