An art exhibit in Fort Worth is giving life to stuff we throw away.
Teams of elementary and middle school students from 80 campuses in the Crowley, Fort Worth, Keller, and Mansfield school districts created works of art out of materials that would otherwise be trash.
"We encourage them to find things at home and in their school. So you'll see a lot of milk containers from school cafeterias and forks," said Taylor Willis, a founder and executive director of The Welman Project, a nonprofit that produced the contest.
Kids spent months working together on their projects after school. They also learn about artists, art theory, and conservation.
"The goal is to really get them looking at materials in different ways, seeing how in their own daily lives they can be reusing materials, finding beauty in things that other people might discard and find their artistic voice," Willis said.
"This year's theme was Curious Creatures and Make Believe Monsters. So their instructions were to create a piece along that theme and use at least 80 percent materials that had been previously used and that they were repurposed in a new way in their project."
Each piece was judged on the amount of reused and repurposed materials, overall visual impact, interpretation of the theme, creativity, craftsmanship, and a journal to illustrate through words and pictures the creative process and show that students led the work.
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A monster called Queen Iris by students at West Handley Elementary won People's Choice. The students at Kirkpatrick Middle won Best in Show for a three-foot creature.
The Recycled Art Contest and Exhibit hosted by Fort Worth After School will stay up through Sunday, April 23rd in the lobby of Tarrant County College Trinity River. It's free to visit.
The host group, The Welman Project, is a local nonprofit whose mission is to fill a classroom, not a landfill.
The group takes surplus waste from the business community and gives it away to teachers for creative reuse in the classroom.
