March Creative Reuse Events & Updates

Thank you, Moving Day Volunteers!

This month we are celebrating securing a location for our creative reuse center! Our volunteers have been working around the clock, cleaning, painting, and keeping our sidewalk and bus stop clear of ice and snow throughout these wintry conditions.

This past week, a big team of UCR volunteers showed up to move most of our inventory into the new space. With so many helping hands, we were able to move thousands of pounds of stuff in less than 3 hours. We also want to thank Rainbow Cupboard for their incredibly generous donation (and delivery) of furniture to our shop!

We are enormously grateful for everyone’s help with this huge lift, and so excited to expand the work we are doing in Utica– we can’t wait to open our doors to the community!

Preparing to Open: Next Steps

Before we can open our thrift shop, we need to unpack, sort, and organize all of our donated materials into sections. If you want to help, here are a few ways you can contribute:

• Contact us if you have items to donate. We are currently in search of some specific items, such as: bookshelves, small organizer bins, and tabletop retail displays
• Sign up to volunteer to help us with sorting and organizing
• Make a financial contribution to support our mission! Donations and proceeds from sales help us keep the lights on and pay for other costs associated with operating the thrift store and our free art workshops.

Please note that at this time, all donations are by appointment only!

Upcoming Events

We are so excited to share that our March workshops will take place at our new location. We’re still unpacking and getting our storefront set up, but in the meantime we welcome you to join us for a free class to learn creative ways to practice the art of reuse!

Register for a free workshop on our events page!

Saturday, March 8: Cardboard Sculpture & Paper Clay, 2-4pm
734 Columbia St, Utica, NY 13502

Tuesday, March 18: Upcycled Basket Making, 6-8pm
734 Columbia St, Utica, NY 13502

Friday, March 28: Repair Cafe, 6-8pm
734 Columbia St, Utica, NY 13502
Register for repairs, or sign up to volunteer!

Utica Creative Reuse FAQs

• Events: See our calendar and register for workshops
• Donations: Where, what, and how to donate materials or make a financial donation to Utica Creative Reuse
• Reuse Resources: Tutorials and more to help you reuse what you have
• Sign up to Volunteer: When we have opportunities available, we will let you know 🙂
• Contact us with any questions or comments. We’ll get back to you as soon as we can!

Thank you for your support, and for being a part of our community!