A RECYCLED INSTRUMENT PROJECT HOLIDAY SEASON!

IT’S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE … A RECYCLED INSTRUMENT PROJECT HOLIDAY SEASON!

Posted by Curate | Dec 9, 2021

“The Recycle Instrument Project is truly a unique project. It creates new community ties as well as reconnects old ones, and it encourages personal arts practices through sustainability,” says Curate director Patricia Alessi who founded the project to demystify music and art by encouraging community members to make magic with old and end-of-life instruments.

“We don’t approach recycling as a mandatory endeavour; rather, it is achieved through a fun and creative approach. Everything you consume in your life now becomes potential material for art, from bread bag fasteners to old newspapers, empty bottles and more. This is what we’ve done in our own lives.”

“We’ve looked at our everyday lives, as musicians, and have identified the very real need to reduce, reuse and recycle, but in an entertaining and innovative way.”

The Recycle Instrument Project has been popular since its inception, quickly winning a weekly award at Fringe World in February 2021 for Best Community & Special Events Award as well as, most recently, the National Coates Best Community Event Award for 2021 in October (as part of Coogee Live 2021).

With the support of the City of Subiaco’s Community Development Funding Program and the Subi Farmer’s Market, the two-time award-winning Recycle Instrument Project has been a drawcard at the Subi Farmer’s Market since September reinventing old instruments into art with a crafty twist.

What to do with all that unwanted, unusable sheet music? How about sheet music holiday cards!?

Join Patricia Alessi and special guest, Djinda Boodja artist Dalon O’Hara, on Saturday, 11 December from 8am to noon, as they help you and your loved ones get sustainably crafty this holiday season. Forget shop bought cards to send out to loved ones. Make your cards sings with reused sheet music!

This will be the final workshop for its Subi series, Pop Up! Recycle Instrument Project Community Arts Workshops. But, if you miss out, don’t despair! The project is regularly available throughout metro Perth and is even popping up in the regions. It will be returning to Mandurah in January 2022 as well as venturing off to York in the Wheatbelt in June 2022, too, thanks to the support of the Shire of York.

Additionally, Curate will be launching its new initiative of the Recycle Instrument Project in Fringe World 2022: Musical Pinwheels: A Nostalgic Recycle Instrument Project Workshop, with workshops at both the Djinda Boodja Arts Centre in Waterford as well as at The Bowlo at Leederville Sporting Club in West Leederville (more information available via Fringe World, Musical Pinwheels: A Nostalgic Recycle Instrument Project Workshop | FRINGE WORLD Festival – 14 January – 13 February 2022). And, it will be undertaking a residency at REmida in North Perth in March 2022, through the generous support of the City of Vincent, as well as offering workshops to the public.

“Curate is providing a much-needed service to communities: instead of ending up in skip bins and landfills, old and broken instruments, parts, gear and accessories are getting recycled into painted artworks, bug hotels, garden planters, windchimes and more. Sheet music is being turned into cards, pinwheels and paper aeroplanes. Old LPs and CDs have become their own unique arts project altogether, from paintings to sun catchers. The possibilities have truly become endless. And the project is bringing people together – sparking conversations between strangers about art and music.”

In 2022, Curate will be premiering their Shadow Puppet Opera as part of Fringe World with their partners Djinda Boodja (Noongar for ‘Star Country’).

It will featuring shadow puppets by Djinda Boodja Arts Director Vicki Warn and the classical guitar musical styling of Djinda Boodja artist Dan Chandler, with Alessi singing.

Additionally, they will premiering its show A Night Out with Wolfie & the Gang, featuring Curate’s ensemble Runs with Wolfgang, also as part of Fringe World 2022 at the Girls School Fringe World venue. Tickets for both productions are available via What’s On | FRINGE WORLD Festival – 14 January – 13 February 2022.

Reflecting on the new year ahead, Alessi says Curate will continue to work to offer unique and captivating programmes and productions to WA audiences. Curate is dedicated to connecting and uplifting community and will continue its public art tradition in spite of the ongoing worldwide COVID-19 crisis.

“If we have learnt nothing else from COVID, it is that art is essential to the human experience. We all look for that creative outlet, for personal expression, and we here at Curate recognise the immense value that this provides in our everyday lives.”

The Pop Up! Recycle Instrument Project Community Arts Workshops are free to attend.