California Creative Corps / California Arts Council / The Arts Council for Long Beach
Long Beach Playhouse
June 9, 2024
A Documentary featuring moments before and after the production of Trashion Show Long Beach created by Amy Bauer and coproduced with Jewel Box Children's Theater. The runway show is a culmination of their months-long series of free local workshops for transforming discarded materials into wearable art. Reminiscent of Project Runway’s popular “Unconventional Materials Challenge”, these local workshops inspired participants of all ages to expand their awareness of the interaction of people with the environment and the materials that populate daily life. Bauer’s “refuse to reuse” working sessions invited participants to explore the budding designer within- converting clean discarded materials into unique wearable art.
Bauer and her partner organization Jewel Box Children’s Theater are among the 35 pairs of artists/organizations selected for the current California Creative Corps pilot grant program in Los Angeles and Orange Counties. The new program is funded by the California Arts Council and administered by The Arts Council for Long Beach. The selected year-long projects, including Bauer’s “Trashion Show “and workshops, are crafted to reflect the hearts of the diverse communities they serve, raising awareness of issues that directly impact residents, and increasing civic engagement. Eligible projects address conservation, climate mitigation, social justice, and more. For Bauer, a longtime advocate for sustainability and climate awareness, this program marries love of community and arts engagement with responsible and fun ways for participants to expand their point of view about important contemporary issues.
Bauer’s artwork is meant to provoke thought about everyday items. “Trashion Show” challenges fledgling designers to rethink the traditional perspective of trash, finding new ways to use, reuse, and repurpose otherwise discarded materials. According to Bauer, “If seen as a resource, whole ways of thinking can be turned upside down.” Her work explores environmental themes, and ties them into an investigation of the likenesses and frictions between urban life and her folk-art aesthetic. It references communal history when handcrafts were precious and wringed of every use throughout their existence-such as a worn dress that became an apron before ended up in a quilt or braided rug. Reuse has a tradition of creativity. It encourages the ability to reimagine the future with a multitude of environmental benefits, including reducing the amount of trash that is thrown into landfills each year, reducing the need to use new or raw materials to produce goods which reduces air pollution, water pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and often conserves resources worldwide. In addition to social and economic benefits, creative reusing has personal benefits as well.
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