We’re really excited about our new partnership with the University of the Arts Theatre Design and Technology department.

Associate Professor Nick Embree  (above, picking up reclaimed muslin from our shop) and Kata Kolb, the Charge Scenic at The Walnut Street Theatre, have started teaching the Scenic Painting course using materials from The Resource Exchange.

The Resource Exchange has saved thousands of pounds of lauan, imported tropical plywood used to build film and theatre sets. Students at Uarts are now learning the importance of minimizing the waste of this valuable material by using our reclaimed pieces for their sample boards.

Along with lauan, we save hundreds of yards of muslin and gallons of no longer wanted paint that used to be sent to landfill, which the students are now using to learn scenic artist skills for future productions.

This approach is very much in line with our ongoing Art-from-the-Arts challenge, which enables artists to take materials saved from Philadelphia’s creative industries and turn them into new works.

Interested in seeing more examples of how visual and performing arts can be designed with reuse and sustainability from inception?  Come to Encore! An Eerie October Evening of Opera, Theatre, Art & Spirits, our DesignPhiladelphia event on Thursday, October 17th.   Themed around Halloween, the evening will feature:

-a multi-disciplinary exhibit of studio works, craft, and set designs that incorporate materials the artists have resurrected from the dead (saved from landfill!)

 -The Philadelphia Opera Collective encoring selections from their original performance, “Opera Macabre: Edgar Allan Poe,” and other unsettling songs.

-creepy cocktails and spooky spirits!