Your bottles and bags and toys and many other salvageable materials are going on live bodies.
The American Mural Project’s Recycled Runway event is scheduled Saturday, Oct. 21 at 7 p.m. in the five-story exhibit space at 90 Whiting St.
Individuals and teams will go thread-to-thread for a chance to raise the most money in support of a cause of their choosing, as well as AMP’s education programs. Each accepted participant will have their own webpage on the project’s Recycled Runway website, which will show images of the work in progress, the finished ensemble and the cause for which they have chosen to raise funds. Each designer will have the opportunity to share their personal weblink in advance of the show to encourage friends and family to vote for their design and donate to their cause.
Designers were required to build wearable pieces made of at least 75 percent recyclable and/or trash-rescued materials. Options included textile scraps, landfill recyclables, discarded toys and game pieces, packaging materials and food containers, construction scraps, plastic bags and bottle caps.
Following the event, selected designs and ensembles will be on display as part of a month-long exhibit. Information about tickets was to be announced.
“People have been clamoring for the return of this event since we first hosted the sold-out runway show in 2019,” said Amy Wynn, AMP’s executive director.
“We had over 35 designers who constructed more than 40 extraordinary outfits for that event. The Recycled Runway aims to tap the creative juices of both amateur and professional designers, challenging them to make wearable art from discarded items, while bringing attention to the importance of reducing waste and recycling. This year’s event aims to raise money, for both AMP and the designers’ chosen causes, well before we celebrate together during the actual runway show in October.”
Visit americanmuralproject.org/runway and / or contact abigail@americanmuralproject.org for more information.
About AMP
Launched in 2001 by artist Ellen Griesedieck, AMP is home to the largest indoor collaborative artwork in the world – a three-dimensional mural, 120-feet long and five stories high. The mural is a tribute to American workers and highlights what has defined the country over the last century. It seeks to inspire, to educate, to invite collaboration, and to reveal to people of all ages the many contributions they can make to American culture.
More than 15,000 children and adults have helped create pieces of the mural, which is housed in one of two former mill buildings on the AMP campus on Whiting Street in Winsted. Programming is offered to schools and teachers, after-school partnerships, summer enrichment sessions and an apprentice-style internship program. The exhibit is open Fridays and Saturdays, 10a.m.-5 p.m. and Sundays, 12- 5p.m.
AMP’s sponsors are Scope Construction, Northwest Community Bank and R&M Insulation. Lead funding for the American Mural Project has been provided by the Newman’s Own Foundation, Northwest Connecticut Community Foundation and the state Department of Economic and Community Development / Connecticut Office of the Arts, which also receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts. Recent additional support has been provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, CT Humanities, with funding provided by the state Department of Economic and Community Development/Connecticut Office of the Arts from the Legislature.