Get trashed
Be part of the show as the Trash Bash returns
By Emily Lindblom
For the TODAY
The Trash Bash is back, and there’s still time to be a part of this beloved community event.
Artistic types and those that just hate to throw things away will strut down a runway wearing extravagant outfits of repurposed foam, bottle caps and bubble wrap and create art made of old scraps of material that would otherwise be headed to a landfill.
The Trash Bash Art Festival is returning to the Manzanita area this year on May 12 through 15 to raise funds for the Heart of Cartm, formerly known as the Conservation Action Resource Team of Manzanita.
Funds will help the Cartm organization pay operation and labor costs and host its weekly repair and creative reuse workshops.
Jessi Just, Heart of Cartm executive director, wants participants to understand that waste can be a very valuable resource.
“It’s important for us to remember there is no ‘away’ when you throw something away,” she said. “It’s going to be here for a very long time, so it’s important for our communities to use the waste as a resource.”
The Trash Bash began in 1999 at the Manzanita Transfer Station, where Heart of Cartm managed the reuse and recycling operations. Participants would dress up to buy art made of trash and other reclaimed objects as a fundraiser for the organization.
“It was a fun party atmosphere,” Just said, “and an occasion where local artists were celebrated for their creativity in transforming discarded items and trash.”
In 2007, Just was helping to organize the Trash Bash as an employee of Cartm, and she and her friend Julie Amici came up with the idea to start the Trashion Show.
Amici was inspired by Portland’s Junk to Funk trashion show and decided to bring a similar event to the coast.
“We thought it would be so fun to showcase all the costumes people were wearing to the party because everyone was dressing up,” Just said. “So we decided to make the Trashion Show a part of this event. Folks in our community got excited about making outfits ahead of time so they could walk the runway.”
Organizers turned dumpsters upside down, draped them with carpet and surrounded them with strings of lights to create the runway.
Amici is on the planning committee for this year’s show.
“It’s a super fun community event that brings people together,” she said, adding some people like to dress up to attend the event and others will make outfits for someone else to wear in the Trashion Show. “It’s fun to get up on stage and bring awareness to the community about recycling, reducing, reusing and getting to zero waste.”
When Tillamook County took over full operations of the Manzanita Transfer Station, Cartm pivoted and opened a creative reuse store and workshop space in Wheeler.
The Hoffman Center for the Arts in Manzanita will be hosting the Trash Art Gallery and the Nehalem Bay Winery will be hosting the Trashion Show.
“We’ve experienced hard times and wonderful times,” Just said, “but all of us have experienced a deep transformation these last several years and we want to celebrate that and focus on the positive aspects of transformation and what it can do for us as a community, for us personally and certainly for our organization.”
Amici, an artist and musician, said this unique event is especially important in a small rural community.
“Out at the coast we just don't have access to certain brand-new things that other places have,” she said. “Especially now with inflation, we can't just go out and buy new things, so we need to pay attention to the things that we’re throwing away all the time. The Trash Bash brings awareness and gives us the platform to speak about greater issues in a fun environment.”
The deadline to sign up to be in the Trashion Show is Sunday, May 1. All art for the Trash Art Gallery can be dropped off between 2 and 4 pm on Sunday, May 8, and from 10 am to noon on Monday, May 9.
The Trash Art Gallery at The Hoffman Art Center will begin with a ticketed artist reception from 4 to 6 pm on Thursday, May 12. The Trash Art Gallery will be open to the public with a suggested donation from 1 to 4 pm Friday, May 13, through Sunday, May 15.
The Trashion Show Opening Party at The Nehalem Bay Winery is slated for 4 to 5:30 pm on Saturday, May 14, and tickets are required. The main show doors are scheduled to open at 5:30 pm with the Trashion Show starting at 6 pm. This event is also open to the public with a suggested donation.
For more information, to purchase tickets and to sign up to be in the Trashion Show or Trash Art Gallery, go to heartofcartm.org/trash-bash-art-festival. To volunteer, email Jessi Just at Jessi@heartofcartm.org.