PAGE 14 // WEDNeSDAY. DECEMBER 9. 2009
THE PENDULUM
CENTER: A
cardboard
version of
WALL-E.
KMu I ui> bT AbHLfc T BAHNAb | Photographer
The Scrap Exchange is a creative reuse center in
Durham that sells recycled materials to create art.
...anyone s
TRefiiiaRe
1
Dolls made
out of old
T-shirts
were on
display and
for sale in
the “Green
Gallery.”
In the back of the store, one can find melted and
flattened green glass bottles in one corner and dolls made
out of old T-shirts In the opposite corner. The main room is
lined in plastic blue barrels filled to the brim with buttons,
hangers, stockings. Burger King crowns and other random
trinkets. In the Artist’s Marketplace, one can discover
everything from an adorned Chinese checkerboard, a
necklace made with spoon handles, purses, decorative
buttons to a cardboard construction of WALL-E.
And that just scratches the surface of the layout of The
Scrap Exchange in Durham, N.C.
The creative reuse center is a place for artists, children,
teachers, collectors and anyone with an imagination. Its
mission is “to promote creativity, environmental awareness
and community through reuse.”
The nonprofit is 90 percent self-sufficient, and it
supplements all activities through fundraising, support
from the city of Durham, different grants and foundations
and individual donations.
The Scrap Exchange’s materials come from different
industries. The center specializes in industrial discards,
but it has opened the door to residential waste. Businesses
and manufacturers get rid of leftovers by giving them to
sustainable stores like The Scrap Exchange.
The store receives more than 800 drop-off material
donations per year in addition to collections from regular
visits to more than 250 businesses around Durham.
“There's only 44 creative reuse centers in the country
in 13 states, and we are the only one in North Carolina,"
Executive Director Ann Woodward said.
Since the store is a destination location for people
looking for strange and unusual materials. Woodward said
they attract people from across the state.
Chris Rosenthal, an immigrant who worked for a similar
organization in her home country of Australia, started
The Scrap Exchange in 1991. Rosenthal, along with her
husband, got together with some other people interested
in the project.
Woodward started in 1994 when she did outreach for a
creative art service. She directed hands-on programming,
drove to factories to pick up materials and helped with
almost every job. She minored in sculpture at Buffalo State
College, where she found a particular passion for metal.
“(I) just realized there is a lot of power in found objects
and found materials, and I’m very interested in how things
fit together," she said.
Bethany Yoder has been to The Scrap Exchange on
several occasions, but was there for a particular reason
this week.
Along with her 4-and-a-half-year-old daughter Lily,
Yoder was searching for materials to make Christmas gifts
for her nieces and nephews. She wanted to make fuzzy little
critters with eyes and noses, flags, wands or caterpillars.
In the past, Yoder has come to the store to buy rugs for her
home, materials for sewing projects and supplies to make
birthday gifts.
LEFT: Scepters
decorated with
yarn and ribbon.
RIGHT: Patrons
and woriiers
of The Scrap
[Exchange
■niarched in a
larade Dec. 5.
The store hosts more than 70 birthday parties on- and
off-site per year. Laura Conner brought her older daughter
to the store for a birthday party with her school friends.
“It’s very neat," Conner said. “Kids like it a lot. It’s a
good way to recycle things."
In addition to birthdays, The Scrap Exchange offers
hands-on creative arts programming at festivals and big
fairs, visits schools to host creative arts workshops, trains
teachers on how to use the materials in their curriculums
and leads corporate teambuilding workshops.
School visits cost $1.75 per child.
Woodward came to Elon years ago to lead a professional
development course with students training to be teachers.
She brought materials and gave an introduction about
where they came from.
Woodward said her goal in leading workshops like these
is to explain how the process of reuse centers work so the
participants know there are resources out there.
“It’s like teaching people how to farm," Woodward said.
“If they know how to find the materials, they can use that
for the rest of their life."
Woodward said her favorite materials in the center are
the fire extinguishers and the construction and demolition
waste, especially the metal.
“People bring in their collections of fabric, which I think
is one of my favorite things that happens," Woodward
said.
One woman was making saris with fabric she collected
from the 1960s and 1970s and brought in her leftovers.
The Scrap Exchange is well known for its fabric and for
what it sells from the blue barrels. The barrels are filled
with random items with which patrons can fill a bag for
a set price.
The Scrap Exchange also has a “Green Gallery,” where it
exhibits more than 100 artists per year.
“The gallery promotes artists who are using reuse
materials in their artwork,” Woodward said.
Woodward said the center has a no-glue policy. When
people don’t use glue, they begin to think about the
properties of the materials. Woodward said.
“You’re not sitting around waiting for the glue to dry,”
Woodward said. “You’re actually having this vibrant, active
conversation about what you’re doing with the materials.
And you’re creating community. You’re talking to the
person next to you.”
The education students Woodward works with have
to make something and do a critique at the end of the
workshop to talk about what they made and why.
“I like function,” Woodward said. “I’m a big form and
function person. I want things to be beautiful that you can
use on a daily basis.”
Exhibit A was the orange flower pinned to her chest. It
was made out of a smashed aerosol can top.
“I just think collecting and disseminating used
materials should really be a part of the future because
we really need to conserve resources," Woodward said.
“We can't keep cutting down trees. We need to keep what
is valuable out of the landfill and put it in the hands of
people who can use the materials."
Dance studio brings nearby building to life
Marlena Chertock
Reporter
Girls and boys wearing ballet slippers and
tights crowd on a few sofas, the steps and into the
costume room. Some practice in the dance studio.
Others work on their homework, waiting for his
or her turn to dance.
This is Saturday rehearsal for Walkerdance
Studio, located a few minutes down the road from
Elon's campus.
The Walkerdance Studio has been in Elon for
30 years.
The name comes from director April Chandler's
uncle.
“My uncle John Walker owns (the studio), and I
direct it for him now," Chandler said.
Walker purchased
the building
that is
now the
Walkerdance
Studio in
the 1970s.
Downstairs
is the dance
studio, and
upstairs is an
apartment
Chandler
The dance studio is located on Haggard Avenue
and is often overlooked because of its appearance.
rents out.
In the back of the studio, there is a room full of
costumes, most of which are recycled.
“It’s a mix (of new and old)," costume designer
Beth Kennett said. “We resurrected old Russian
costumes from years ago.”
Walker has a history of dancing, having
performed in shows in New York, around the United
States and Canada. He has also choreographed
and taught in North Carolina.
One of the original students at the North
Carolina School of the Arts, Walker studied
modern dance and ballet. He went to New York
City to dance with the Joffrey Ballet Company
before joining the Atlanta Ballet Company.
Walker owns other studios in Elizabeth
City and Manteo, N.C. In 1979, he returned to
Alamance County, where he was raised, to start
Walkerdance Studio.
“I never thought I’d see the day my uncle moved
on,” Chandler said.'
She took over the studio when her uncle
moved back to Manteo, N.C., to run the state park
performances there.
“I always hoped I would (run my own dance
studio),” Chandler said.
She started dancing when she was three She
first recieved lessons in Burlington from her
uncle.
“Taking lessons from my uncle was great,"
she said. “He probably was harder on me because
1 was family. 1 was kicked out of class once for
being disrespectful to him. 1 don’t remember him
ever kicking another student out of class."
She said she danced until she was 21 and
became pregnant.
Walkerdance Studio now has about*
70 students. The dancers range from
ages 3 to 18.
Most of them leave their senior
year, after they graduate high school,”
Chandler said.
Dance classes run from Monday to
Thursday. Juniors and seniors in high
school have rehearsals and dance
classes twice a week.
This year, the studio will put
on four performances of “The
Nutcracker for schools in the area,
four performances for the public and
one garden performance, where the
dancers perform outdoors at a depot
in downtown Burlington.
Each class does a piece,”
Chandler said.
Walkerdance Studio will perform
“The Nutcracker” Dec. 18-20 in
McCrary Theatre.
PI^TOT^V DA^ WELLS |
Dancers practice poses
wall to stretch out before a rou«
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