Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse

Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse inspires creativity, conservation, and community engagement through reuse. With your help in 2015, we diverted over 41 tons of useful material from landfills, provided affordable and free materials for hundreds of creative and educational projects, and offered hands-on learning experiences for over 13,000 people. Every donation and purchase fuels exploration, expression, learning, innovation, play, sharing, and giving by transforming waste into resources.

THE SHOP AT CREATIVE REUSE:
Our largest program is our shop, where artists, teachers, and members of the public can find an amazing array of materials, supplies, and tools to fuel their creative and educational projects. Our shop is more than just a store. It's a community resource and a safe space where folks can find inspiration, encouragement, project ideas, as well as affordable materials.

Our shop diverts over three tons of materials from the area's landfills every month by providing a place where businesses and individuals can donate unwanted but useful materials. Our shop also offers Project Sponsorships which provide free and discounted materials to support the creative reuse projects of artists, educators, and non-profit organizations.

EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING PROGRAMS:
Our Creative Education team offers hands-on creative reuse activities for all ages at festivals, libraries, schools, and other venues around Pittsburgh. Our creative education menu includes custom-designed workshops; field trips; professional development and team building; and Reuse-a-Palooza, as seen at the Three Rivers Arts Festival. Our programs encourage environmental stewardship and creative exploration of reclaimed materials, and demonstrate that waste can be a resource for art-making, innovation, and playful hands-on learning.

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE:
In 2016, Creative Reuse launched a pilot artist residency that provides materials, exhibition space, and development opportunities, and a small stipend for an artist working with reclaimed materials. Our residency helps to demonstrate the creative potential of reclaimed materials and the power of art to build community and re-make culture.

CREATIVE REUSE NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT! Financial contributions from our community make it possible for us to provide free materials for creative projects, development opportunities for artists and teachers, and hands-on learning for thousands of kids in our community. Your donation today will support inclusive, experiential learning for people of all ages; resources and opportunities for artists and educators, and collaborative creative work toward long-term community goals around environmental, economic, and social sustainability.

Testimonials

"I love that place!"

"Creative Reuse is something I didn't know I needed until it opened, and then I immediately saw how vital and important it was to the arts community here in Pittsburgh. And it's just plain fun too!" - Matthew Buchholz, Alternate Histories