Buffalo ReUse announces our 2nd annual ReFind Arts Exhibition (formerly known as ReArt). This year’s show is Accessing the Imagination and we invite artists to reinterpret doors! It can be art on doors or with doors or of doors. The doors can come from anywhere–your basement, your gramma’s house, your neighbor’s curb. Artists can make functional or nonfunctional pieces–reassemble the door into a bunk bed, a gate to the 4th dimension, or a portrait of Monty Hall! Dip it in wax, string it with neon tubes, cover it with skeleton keys or ketchup, mustard & sweet relish–it’s up to you.

Deadline is October 15, 2008.
(please send jpgs/proposed plan to us so we can jury the show for variety)
Submissions/Questions should be sent to refindarts {at} buffaloreuse(.)org We’ll consider up to 5 works per artist.  $20 entry fee due upon acceptance/dropoff of work.

We do have some beat up doors set aside that “only an artist would love” and they’re just $5 each. We will accept jpgs or link to images of the works.

Please contact us if you’re also interested in assisting with the exhibition: see last year’s show here.

Wednesday, June 18

Carvings for a Cause Fundraiser-Buffalo’s historical figures will “come to life” at Carvings for a Cause Fundariser at the Town Ballroom, beginning at 6:00 p.m. The event will feature a film documentary “red carpet” premiere by Canisius College Video Institute, historical carvings will “come to life,” food stations, live music and auction items related to the 2006 storm, as well as environmental themed auction items.

Monies raised from this event will go towards assisting Phase II of the project, which includes a Carvings for Cause Tree Sculpture Park, a map & guide, audio tour, transporting and storage of the trees, and future maintenance, in addition to helping re-tree Western New York.

Tickets to the Carvings for a Cause fundraiser are $40 at the door or $30 presale, available at J.P. Bullfeathers (1010 Elmwood Ave.), Grille 620  Holiday Inn (620 Delaware Ave.), the Town Ballroom box office, or

www.tickets.com

This past week I finally met the Buffalo everyone warned me about. Three years ago when I told everyone I was moving to Buffalo, they all said, “Why do you want to live there?! There’s nothing but snow!” But I was enthusiastic about Buffalo and still am. According to my landlord, I got off real easy my first winter here–and last year was pretty mild too. I still couldn’t understand why everyone was trying to terrify me about the snow; I wasn’t really all that impressed–UNTIL this past week. What an awful lot of snow we’ve had–for March?! I got stuck 3 times in one night!

Thankfully, there are a lot of brave souls in Buffalo who don’t let things like a 16″ of snow hinder their Saturday night. It was very warm in Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum where a selection of the peace murals were being exhibited. Several of the students and instructors showed up to see all of the other group’s murals and meet kids from all over the city. It was really exciting to see their faces light up as they stood in front of their murals. As always, it was also a great time to just hang out and catch up with our volunteers and supporters. You certainly missed out on some warm homemade treats; Kathleen Moriarty was a baking fiend and made a luscious (LUSHus) apple cider cake–my mouth and my eyeballs were watering! A special thanks to Sharon Cavanaugh of the WAY Program for bringing some other baked goodies. I want to express a tremendous thanks to everyone who stayed to clean up–our own Jess, Peter, Kevin, Bryan Lohr, Nic Garelick and others.

If you weren’t able to see the 30 murals first hand, there may be other opportunities soon. We are looking for more locations so that the murals might tour throughout the summer.

Just about all of you already know that students across Buffalo have been painting plywood panels which will secure vacant houses in their neighborhood. You also probably know that a selection of them have been chosen for an exhibition this Saturday at Karpeles Manuscript Library at 453 Porter Ave. (click here to view flier)

I wanted you to be able to see how happy the project has made many of the students before you actually meet them on Saturday. Each of the linked group name below will take you to one set showing how the students have been working. These are not all the participating groups–just the ones that we have received photos from to date.

Kenmore East High School
Mount St. Mary Academy
St. Joseph’s
Charter High School of Applied Technologies in Riverside
The Locust Street Art School
WNY Maritime Charter School
New Directions
Lafayette High School

I also wanted to take a moment and say a big thanks to Tom and Dave, at Karpeles–they work there and install the exhibitions you see when you visit. They did most of the work for me–in only 3hrs! There’s no way my petiteness could have managed moving all those 4×8′ panels and assembling them into A-frames without hurting myself or wrecking a display case or three.

Buffalo ReUse, Assemblymember Sam Hoyt, and Local Schools Announce Neighborhood Peace Mural Exhibition

Murals Will Beautify Vacant Properties Near Local Schools

Buffalo, NY – During the last 3 weeks, students from over 25 schools and youth organizations throughout The City of Buffalo have been painting peace murals to secure abandoned houses surrounding their schools. Buffalo ReUse Inc. and The Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum, 453 Porter Ave, (Porter Hall) will host an exhibition of selected panels this Saturday, March 8th, from 6-8pm. For one evening, the public can meet the student-painters, instructors and volunteers from all over the city who participated in the Neighborhood Peace Mural Project.

In January, Buffalo ReUse Inc. invited all public, private and charter schools to adopt-a-vacant-house and use the board up materials as canvases for peace. Many classrooms used the opportunity to discuss the value of diversity, peace, governance, community and Black History Month. Sandra Sheppard’s students at Futures Academy have been walking around their neighborhoods, looking at houses and discussing blight and civic responsibility.

Eric L. Simonsen, a teacher of Social Studies, at Middle College High School will take the project beyond New York, “We have a group of 8 students that will be traveling to New Orleans in May to share community service project ideas with students from all over the country. We will highlight the Peace Mural Project in Buffalo as an example of what students can do.”

Sharon Benz from Daemen College Center for Sustainable Communities and Civic Engagement photographed students painting their murals at The Locust Street Art School in the Historic Fruit Belt (see attached)

Peace Mural becomes a family affair! Daja & Dynasty Lark from Locust Street Art/Daemen College after-school program. Photo courtesy: Sharon A. Benz.

Citizens from all over Buffalo have pitched in by cleaning out their basements and donating their used house paint! Tom Matheny and Lisa Black of Medaille College organized a campus-wide paint drive and brought over 180 gallons of paint to be reused instead of poured down the gutter or thrown into the garbage. Local businesses have helped too–George Niemiec of Niemiec Builder’s Supply provided 25 panels plus a significant discount for 3 flats of OSB. Paul Leahey of Schuele Paint Company donated over 200 new cans of high quality paints! Hyatt’s Art Supply donated over 150 paint brushes for the project. Supporters of Buffalo ReUse Inc also donated money to sponsor participating schools and purchase the OSB. Buffalo ReUse Executive Director Michael Gainer commented, “This project is bringing together businesses, schools, and families to take ownership for improving the quality of life in our inner city neighbhorhoods. We’re ecstatic about the collaboration that is occuring to make this project a success.”

Once the weather gets warmer, teams of adult volunteers will collect the panels from the schools and use them to board up a vacant house within eyesight of the participating school. Buffalo ReUse Inc. will need to borrow, power drills, ladders–maybe even a cherry picker! Making neighborhoods safer is very important; allowing students to paint the 4′x8′ sheets of plywood improves their morale every time they pass by and see their artwork.

If you would like to assist Buffalo ReUse Inc and its team of volunteers, please contact Caesandra at 716-885-4131 or email volunteer {at} buffaloreuse(.)org

For more information about Buffalo ReUse Inc., visit their website www.buffaloreuse.org or their blog www.buffaloreuse.wnymedia.net/

Here are links to other photos from this project:

Delivering Peace Mural supplies

The Locust Street Art School

We had such an incredible gift from Tom Matheny and the Medaille College community. Mr. Matheny and Lisa Black coordinated a used paint drive on our behalf and Tom brought us about 180 cans of used paint on Saturday. Ian and I spent about 4 hours consolidating the “like colors” for redistribution. We certainly needed all that paint because we’d practically run out from all those schools we delivered to previously. So, Sunday night Michael and I spoke to plan Monday to the T. We made sure we had time to deliver mural supplies to Gretchen Weidner down in Dunkirk, do an assessment in Olean, drop off a water heater, work on the financials and filing system with Kristin Rose and bribe Kevin into coming in on his day off for a staff meeting and then we intended to deliver the remaining mural supplies to the last 6 participating schools and finish the day by attending some meetings.

Michael was supposed to meet Gretchen in the Dunkirk Middle School parking lot at 7:30am and come back to Buffalo, but at 8am when I called to ask how things went, Michael told me the worst news–the boxtruck broke down . . . Drrrat! Kevin had to go rescue Michael and by the time they got back there was almost no time left in the school day. We loaded the paint into my car and the plywood onto the F250 and scrambled over to Kara Fahey at WNY Maritime Charter School, where her students assisted Michael in unloading the plywood. Then it was back to Niemiec’s to get a final load of plywood to blitz Riverside and St. Joseph’s in Kenmore and St. Mary’s School for the Deaf and Tapestry Charter School. It was almost 5pm when we finished and there was still a whole list of tasks to complete before the day’s end.

Turns out that we’ll have to get the starter rebuilt and drive it back down to Dunkirk to put it back into the boxtruck (today–ugh).
This weekend will be big for volunteer opportunities–mostly trying to get the ReSOURCE ship-shape so that we can expand hours next week. And, of course, on Monday, I’ll be driving around again to all the schools, but it’s to pick up their best panels for the exhibition on the 8th. If you’re available Monday, let me know–especially if you have a truck that can fit some 4′x8′ painted panels. We are also accepting cookies, chips and soda as light refreshments for the exhibition at Karpeles (for those of you who need a stronger reason to get back on track with that diet resolution). You can bring that stuff by the store this weekend, but make sure you tell somebody it’s for the exhibition or else it’s liable to reappear onto the thighs of the staff and volunteers!

I have never worked in a lumber yard and until we began delivering supplies for the Neighborhood Peace Mural Project, I never had the need to purchase a large quantity of plywood. So, when Michael told me that 2 flats of plywood meant 2 trips to Niemiecs, I was frustrated because I had already mapped out the whole itinerary for 8 deliveries–a second trip had not been factored in. When he told me that 2 flats simply wouldn’t fit in the truck–I couldn’t understand it! I didn’t realize the quantity we’d delivered previously was considered a “partial flat.” It seemed to me that there’d be plenty of room for two of those strapped piles we’d bought previously. The crew at Niemiecs chuckled as I threatened to throw a temper tantrum; they must think Michael works with a real brat!
But then I watched the crew use 2 small forklifts to load 90 panels (a whole flat) into the back of the boxtruck and suddenly I understood–there’s no way more would fit in one trip. Now I see–now I know that a “flat” is . . . a lot.

I don’t want to exhaust you with the ins&outs of coordinating this effort, but I do want to share one little thing that makes it worth it and you’re going to think I’m a sap–or maybe you’ll think Jon Markle is the sap! When Snoop and Jon and I delivered the plywood and paint to Lenore Bethel at The Locust Street Art School, we were greeted with a team of helpers: Bryce, Gary, Tyesheka and Lenore all stepped out in the cold and we walked the panels up the stairs one at a time. Before we left, Jon said to me, “You gotta go see this room full of kids; they’re like 8s or higher on the cute-scale” ?? I was skeptical; I’ve babysat a lotta kids–but there was no doubt–they were incredibly cute in their smocks and smiles. Who can resist a smile like this?

There’s still more deliveries to be made this Monday. Medaille College has been running a paint drive for us all week and they’ll deliver the goods to the ReSource on Saturday. If you’ve been putting off that cold walk downstairs to the basement for those cans of used house paint–now’s the time to put on those fuzzy slippers and haul it up! Please note that 25% of inventory sales on Saturday goes directly toward plywood, buckets of screws and other needs for the Neighborhood Peace Mural Project and exhibition. Hope to see you from 10-4! Note from Kevin: Once again, 25% of our sales are available to purchase materials for the Mural Project. This Saturday we took in just under $700 and now have an addition $175 contribution directly from our loyal customers.

Mr. Paul Leahy from Schuele Paint Company (on the corner of Main and Summer) called Michael earlier this week and said he’d heard about the Neighborhood Peace Mural Project and wanted to help us out. What an understatement! Schuele’s was so generous–Nick, Doug, Brad and Ilya helped us load over four big carts of paint into the back of the cube truck today–I could hardly believe it. SPC donated over 100 gallons and over 100 quarts plus some empties so that we could break down the large 5 gallon buckets too. Oh, yes, painter hats and stir sticks, too. It’s superior quality paint; I definitely felt like I was robbing the paint store and Kevin was driving our get-away vehicle! Wow. Let me say it again–WOW.

Kevin is rigging a makeshift tent (read: tea cozy) in the ReSOURCE so that we can keep the paint unfrozen until we can deliver it. I will begin sorting it all Saturday morning and making sure each school has a little of the whole color wheel (ROYGBV) to work with. We will still gladly accept more of your used house paint that you’ve got stashed in your basements and sheds and garages because we already distributed over 80 gallons of paint to the first six schools and we want to make sure each of other 16 groups have enough to coat 20 plywood panels each.

If you’d like to make an on-line donation, please visit our donation page.

These next two Saturdays 25% of all sales of material will go toward sponsoring the schools and purchasing more 4′x8′ plywood panels and 6″ screws we’ll need for the project and even the invitations and refreshments (cookies & soda) we’ll need for the exhibition. So, if you’ve been eyeballing those stained glass windows or tin ceiling panels or pocket doors or hand-hewn beams or even that stove or kitchen cabinet–come and get it!

Please encourage your friends who are in renovating mode to come out and take a look at what we have available at the ReSOURCE.

Monday and Tuesday we began delivering paint and plywood to a few of the participating schools! It was bitterly cold, but I had warm fuzzies on the inside because we actually had something to deliver, thanks to the generosity of a handful of people who made a monetary donation over the weekend. Because of their donations, we were able to go back to Niemiec’s Builder’s Supply Store and purchase more plywood.

Amanda and I drove out to Akron on Monday afternoon to drop off the plywood and paint that Jill Cornell’s classes will use to create their peace murals. We also dropped off some paint for Nathan Backes at Oracle Charter School.

Tuesday, Steffon was a big help because we made more deliveries to: Mr. Jagiello at Lafayette High School, Denise Carr at Kenmore East High School, and Tom Kulaszewski at The Charter High School for Applied Technologies, in Riverside. All the instructors were really excited and it’s a big job for everyone involved–including the teachers–they have to manage teenagers using paint! (part of me is envious and part of me isn’t). Paint is a lot of fun! Each group will receive 20 panels and assorted paints. We still need materials for 16 other schools/groups!

So, if you can sponsor a school or bring more paint or supplies, we desperately need more so that we can continue to deliver on Monday. You can bring your used house paint and primer to the ReSOURCE this Saturday from 10-4pm. If you have old sheets or paint brushes, rollers or pans–every little bit helps! Please call us for additional delivery times or donations 716-885-4131.

If you would like to make an on-line donation, please visit our paypal page.

It’s amazing! In just a few weeks, 30 art classes and youth organizations have stepped forward to participate in the Neighborhood Peace Mural Project, an effort to address blight in the neighborhoods surrounding schools and to empower youth to take an active role in improving their communities. The endeavor has been greeted with tremendous enthusiasm by students, their teachers and principals alike; it offers the opportunity for so many students to display their artwork, improve our neighborhoods, and discuss the topics of peace, community, and government.

Despite the excitement of those currently invested in the project, we have struggled to get the support of building supply stores for donations of materials to enable the project. Many company contacts, though supportive of the project, point to high demands for plywood due to storms as a reason why they are unable to provide a donation of 400 plywood boards. With one exception, Niemiec’s Builder’s Supply (716) 884-6990 at 800 Grant Street, who committed 25 boards for the project. A huge thank you to Niemiec’s for stepping up to support the project! We also want to thank Hyatt’s Art Supply for donating some new acrylic paint tubes and brushes!

Because of the crunch, we have yet to meet our demand for board up materials/canvasses for this project. Although we haven’t received all the donations of boards needed to get us going with the project, we want to thank the many folks from the community who have stepped forward with donations of house paint…a way to recycle your unused paint for a purpose. We’ll continue to accept primer and house paint in our store at 298 Northampton Street, please contact Kevin 308-7399 to coordinate a drop off…all colors/blends are welcome!

With the intention of keeping this project moving forward, we are asking for your financial support. We are spearheading a sponsorship campaign to raise the funds necessary to get this project off the ground.

We’re also meeting with the City of Buffalo on Monday, with hopes that they will commit support for the project. If they come through in a big way (provide the plywood panels), we will commit all raised funds to greenspace projects this spring to purchase plants, flowers, shrubs, trees, and gardening materials to create dynamic community gardens and micro parks.

So please help spread the word!

$135 Full sponsorship for one school…would cover the costs for 20 canvasses for peace and supplies.

$65 Ten boards to support a community group that has adopted a vacant house in a Buffalo neighborhood near its school. (If you want to bring the boards that you’ve purchased–that’s wonderful too!)

$30 A big step towards getting us rolling.

Your sponsorships will go to work immediately! We have deliveries scheduled for this Monday with materials that have been pledged so far, yet, we have a long way to go. Please respond by email with your commitment for materials OR go straight to our donation page. Your participation will be critical to enabling the project.

Also, Mark your Calendars! On Saturday, March 8th….join us for the Neighborhood Peace Mural Exhibition at the Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum, 453 Porter Ave, from 6-8 p.m. You’ll have an opportunity to meet the young artists and see many of the canvasses that will blanket neighborhoods around schools.

Thank you and we look forward to hearing from you!

Onward,

Buffalo ReUse Staff and Volunteers