How could we refuse?
The Trash Bash returns this weekend
By Gretchen Ammerman
Oregon Coast TODAY
Manzanita area residents are donning their best bubble wrap boas, compact disk dresses and bottlecap bustiers. You guessed it, the Trash Bash Art Festival is back.
The “Celebration of Transformation,” includes art, music and the Trashion Show, the haute-est part of the four-day festival, which runs from Thursday, May 12, through Sunday, May 15.
The Hoffman Center for the Arts in Manzanita will host the Trash Art Gallery while the Trashion Show will take place at Nehalem Bay Winery.
All money raised will help pay operation and labor costs and support the weekly repair and creative reuse workshops at the Heart of Cartm, formerly known as the Conservation Action Resource Team of Manzanita.
Open to the public from Friday through Sunday, May 13 through 15, the Trash Art Gallery shows how artists have turned trash to treasure.
The Trashion Show takes place on Saturday, May 14, kicking off with a ticketed opening party, featuring Prince tribute act Erotic City. After the launch party, the main show is opens to the public for a suggested donation.
The Trash Bash began in 1999 at the Manzanita Transfer Station, where Cartm managed the reuse and recycling operations. Participants would dress up to buy art made of trash and other reclaimed objects as a fund-raiser for the organization.
“It was a fun party atmosphere and an occasion where local artists were celebrated for their creativity in transforming discarded items and trash,” Heart of Cartm Executive Director Jessi Just said.
In 2007, Just was helping to organize the Trash Bash as an employee of Cartm, and she and her friend Julie Amici, inspired by Portland’s Junk to Funk trashion show, came up with the idea to start a local trashion show.
Amici was excited to help plan this year’s show after the hiatus.
“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 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 operation of the Manzanita Transfer Station, Cartm pivoted, rebranded as Heart of Cartm and opened the “Office of Reimagination,” a creative reuse store and workshop space in Wheeler.
With the primary mission of extending the life of objects by any means possible, the shop has salvaged and handmade objects for sale, make-and-take art projects and the Repair Cafe, where people who know how to fix things volunteer their time and expertise to those who don’t.
“It’s been a very popular program,” Just said. “Part of it is being in a rural area, we don’t have the repair shops that exist in an urban area. Also because of our society’s throwaway system that creates things that can’t be fixed, fewer people have the know-how to repair something they have that actually can be. We encourage people to sit down with our expert fixers and learn about their items — that’s one of the best parts of the program.”
When not being utilized during the repair cafes, the tables in the back of the shop are used for fun creative art projects for all ages on a drop-in basis.
“The make-and-take art projects have been extremely popular with both kids and adults,” Just said. “I love to see families come in together, or grandparents with kids and even adults coming in all by themselves.”
The tools and materials are provided, and the fee to participate is by donation.
“We set up a specific project and help you with it, or you can peruse the store and add to it.”
Past projects have included fascinators, which are small highly decorative hats, light catchers, magnets, and handmade cards and envelopes.
For Just and the rest of the Heart of Cartm crew, there is nothing casual about the theme, “Celebration of Transformation,” for this year’s Trash Bash.
“We’ve experienced hard times and wonderful times but all of us have experienced a deep transformation these last several years,” Just said. “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.”
The Trash Art Gallery is open Friday, May 13, through Sunday, May 15, from 1 to 5 pm at the Hoffman Center for the Arts, located at 594 Laneda Avenue, Manzanita.
The Trashion Show opening party is on Saturday, May 14, from 4 to 5:30 pm at Nehalem Bay Winery, located at 34965 Hwy. 53. The main show doors open at 5:30 pm and the fashion show starts at 6 pm.
For more information about the festival or events at Heart of Cartm, go to heartofcartm.org.