Arts Junktion

Tucked around the corner from Cre8tery Gallery and Art Supply store at 312B William Avenue in the Exchange District of Winnipeg is ArtsJunktion Recycling depot. ArtsJunktion mb Inc. is a community-based, charitable organization committed to redistributing reusable materials.

Mandate:
· To support community artists and arts organizations by providing materials, workshop and gallery space
· To provide educational opportunities to community groups and community members on various techniques using recycled materials in art
· To support community artists through promotion of their art through fairly paid employment opportunities
· To gather reusable materials from businesses, organizations and individuals, that would otherwise be considered waste, sort them and make them available to all at no charge
· To reduce the amount of waste that ends up in landfills
· To raise awareness in the community regarding environmental issues and sustainability
· To support community development by being centrally located and by liaising between businesses, community organizations and community members

My daughter and I spent a few hours volunteering there on Saturday as I thought this was an organisation we could both go and support.

Chloe, the depot manager is super friendly and helped us settle in quickly by letting us pick an area we wanted to clean up and organise the displays. Daughter quickly gravitated toward the yarn and sewing notions which were a big tangled mess. She's always untangled these types of messes for me and has more patience than I do!

We had fun and found a few treasures for ourselves while we were at it.

It was interesting to see how busy the depot is on a Saturday. People were constantly coming and going with donations or making selections. Their system has people noting the cubic feet of donations and withdrawals and it's so great to see so many unwanted items being saved from going to landfill.