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Community Earth Day Celebration
4/22/23 2:00-6:00pm
Celebrate Earth Day in Central City!
Reduce, reuse, recycle. Get inspired about creative reuse and learn how you can make an impact in waste reduction!
Community Partners:
The Green Project Serving New Orleans since 1994, the Green Project's mission is to promote a culture of creative reuse by diverting usable materials from landfills and cultivating a respect for their value.
Grounds Krewe A non-profit helping New Orleans special event planners and participants reduce waste and lower their impact on our planet.
​Compost NOW A residential food waste collection program with multiple daily drop off sites all over New Orleans.
Silent Auction
Our silent auction site is LIVE!
Check out all of the beautiful designs that were generously designed and created by local artists using upholstery samples and silk scraps.
We are still adding new pieces and descriptions but we couldn't wait to share. Bidding is OPEN from 4/17/23 - 4/22/23 at 6:00 pm
Earth Day Designer Textile Reuse Challenge
17 million tons of used textile waste are generated annually in the United States.
Why clothes are so hard to recycle | BBC Future
"Around 85% of all textiles thrown away in the US are either dumped into landfill or burned. The average American has been estimated to throw away around 37kg of clothes every year. And globally, an estimated 92 million tonnes of textiles waste is created each year and the equivalent to a rubbish truck full of clothes ends up on landfill sites every second. By 2030, we are expected as a whole to be discarding more than 134 million tonnes of textiles a year."
Keeping fabrics and used clothes out of the landfill is core to our mission. By impacting our community through education in the fiber arts and fashion industry, ricRACK envisions a world that fosters waste reduction, sustainability, creative expression and entrepreneurship.
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Local designers and textile artists will participate in the Designer Textile Reuse Challenge, an annual talent showcase and innovative competition where all participants are given identical materials and asked to produce a wearable or functional piece. Designs will be displayed in the creative reuse shop during the event and up for bid in a silent auction, with the proceeds directed to the 501c3’s courses and workshops for youth and adults to learn to sew and re-use donated clothing, textiles, and craft materials.
The Designer Challenge is just one part of the Earth Day fun. ricRACK’s sewing machine repair specialist Joe Armstrong will be on site offering affordable scissor sharpening; their Education and Outreach Coordinator, Jahireen Hebert will have a table set up for clothing mending and repairs; visual artist and ricRACK instructor Jane Tardo will have a kid friendly crafting area where children can make finger puppets and learn about endangered animals; blank fabric squares will be laid out and guests will be encouraged to use fabric markers to draw or write on one, all of which will be sewn together and turned into a community quilt by Executive Director and textile artist Lizz Freeman; a community textile recycling drop off point will be set up where attendees can bring end of life textiles to be recycled for $2/pound; there will be a sidewalk sale including many racks of children's clothing and shoes for all ages donated by film and television productions.
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2023 Designers:
Thayer Abaigael Lund
Paige McRae
Monique Motil
Kevin Kousha
Jane Tardo
Marwan Pleasant
Blythe Craft
Alester Stalling
CoCoRyan Toland
Lizz Freeman Kelly
Carolina Gallop
Clara Diaz
Alison Schreuder
Cherice Harrison-Nelson
Jeannie Detweiler
Darren Isabelle
Chloe Bernert
Sami Mihalik
Let’s Work Together
Get in touch so we can start working together.