About Utica Creative Reuse
Utica Creative Reuse is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to promoting creativity, community, and environmental stewardship in Central New York by reclaiming materials for the arts.
Our mission is to divert usable materials from the waste stream and advance access to arts education in CNY. Proceeds from our thrift store support accessible and inclusive arts programming for all, empowering our community to connect through creativity.
What Happens To Your Donation?
When you donate materials, tools, or supplies to Utica Creative Reuse, you are keeping those materials in use longer, reducing our reliance on new materials and resources. Your donated items are used in our free events and programming, or discounted and sold in our art supply thrift shop, providing affordable supplies to the community.
Since we are a nonprofit organization, financial donations and profits from sales in our thrift store do not enrich any one individual or stockholders. All of the money received by our organization goes back into running the organization– to maintain, improve, and expand our efforts.
We rely on support from our community to make this work possible! Your contributions help us maintain a permanent location for our creative reuse center in Utica to continue and expand the work we are doing.
When you donate materials or money to our organization, learn an upcycling skill at one of our workshops, or shop for supplies at our thrift store, you are helping to slow climate change by contributing to a circular economy!
Our Art Supply Thrift Store
At our volunteer-run art supply thrift store, we accept donations of unwanted items to keep usable materials out of the landfill. Our volunteers identify, sort, and organize these items, so that we can provide affordable second-hand art materials to the community!
Check our events page for our current store hours. See our accepted materials list for details on what you might find in our store, or check out our social media pages to find more photos and videos.
Our Work: Free Art Education, Upcycling, & Waste Reduction Programs
Our free creative reuse workshops teach upcycling and waste reduction strategies through creating something beautiful and functional and are supported by both donations of materials and financial donations. Learning new art techniques can help students practice skills like patterning, critical thinking, independence, creativity, math, and problem solving! We also offer other ways to contribute to the community through events like trash cleanups and seed swaps.
Thank you for supporting our mission of advancing equity in arts education in Central New York and keeping usable materials out of the waste stream!
