Feature Articles


July Issue 2000

Anderson County Arts Center in Anderson, SC, Features Exhibit on Recycled Materials

Revival & Feathered Nest is the new exhibit opening at the Anderson County Arts Center in Anderson, SC, on view through Aug. 18, 2000.

What slick, attractive, marketable products could be made of the wonderful stuff that usually goes into the landfill? How can we move the next generation of designers toward more sustainable practices? Could people be put to work in those abandoned textile halls making something that would help the planet?

To actively engage these questions, craft artists, designers, students, recycled resource experts, and administrators of economic development and the arts have invaded Rock Hill, SC, spending a week for the past two summers "playing in the sandbox". Nationally recognized designers plundered in the tires and belts and glass. Tables and chairs, picture frames and trivets worthy of Milan markets emerged from old stop signs, phone wire and pallets. From piles and bales of recycled and reused materials, over sixty manufacturable prototypes were designed, some of which will hit the market this fall under the (still pending) trade name RippleEffect.

This annual gathering for educational, environmental and design forces is called Revival, Design Camp Meeting. Participating artists have included: Boris Bally, Rhode Island, metalsmith, recycler, featured in Wall Street Journal, American Craft, and Craft Report cover story; Neil Benson, Philadelphia, founder of Dumpster Divers; Maria Ruano, Seattle, owner of Bedrock Industries recycled glass products; Tom Mann, New Orleans sculptor and entrepreneur; and Nikki Barnes, Rock Hill, SC, whose first design was purchased on the spot by Alexander Julian, visiting design camp as a consultant in 1998.

Three goals have emerged:
1. to work collaboratively to design, manufacture and market high-end home furnishings using recycled and salvaged materials.
2. to discover ways to reduce the waste stream, raising consciousness among consumers, designers and students about the role of design in preventing waste.
3. to perpetuate the camp event, a major force in fostering the first two goals, ultimately using the profits from marketing.

Local designer Melisa Morris Glenn (Feathered Nest) will add her work to the Revival efforts at this exhibit hosted by Anderson County Arts Center. Ellen Kochansky, a resident of Pickens, SC, is co-creator/cocoordinator of Revival. She is a community artist, quilter, owner of EKO, and trustee emeritus, American Craft Council.

For further information check our SC Institutional Gallery listings or call the gallery at 864/224-8811.

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