Re-Toyed Trash

Re-Toyed Trash is a project encouraging people to re-use existing materials and found objects to create something really unique. Sometimes the workshops feature a visiting artist showing in their own style the possibilities of re-using materials. The workshops allow anyone to creatively participate and make things from junk; Artists work alongside Non-Artists, giving all democratic access. As each maker develops their own individual interpretation of an art object when given the use of scrap materials to create something, no two works created at the workshops are the same. Individuals are then offered the opportunity of having their creations exhibited physically in an exhibition and on the Re-Toyed Trash blog.

This is an ongoing project, developing with each new audience providing a new source of creativity. It exists across a range of platforms; on the Internet, in printed documentation, in exhibitions and in the workshops. The project can be taken to almost any venue or event.

It has already utilised the following spaces:

• a bar: the Fab Café, Leeds
• a gallery/studio/shop: theartmarket, Leeds
• an art college: Leeds College of Art & Design
• festivals: Ladyfest Leeds 2007; Situation Leeds: Contemporary Artists and the Public Realm 07; Moor Music Festival, Ilkley 2007; Innocent Village Fete, London 2007 and Lovebox Weekender, London 2008
• a church: the Holy Trinity Church, Boar Lane, Leeds
• a school: Cathedral School, Wakefield College, Wakefield
• and a community centre: Crafty Folk, Knottingley