Trash becomes preschooler's art at Beginnings

Photo: Piotr Redlinski for the New York Times

"Robin Koo, a studio art teacher at Beginnings, helps to oversee the potpourri in the fourth-floor attic that serves as the school's Materials Center." NYT

Wow, this looks like every craftnik's candy store! Organized household disposables of all varieties have become an integral part of art and self-expression at every age (above they fill the art supply room of a NYC nursery school.)

When confronted with a pile of "trash" and a desire to create, the range of possibilities is full of intriguing surprises. There is something that captures our imagination about the concept of taking something that has been tossed aside because it no longer has a practical use and making it once again a worthy item, of looking with fresh eyes at something that is raised from the junk pile to a thing of beauty. Everyone has their own vision. We incorporate our wishes, dreams, experiences and needs into our re-invention of junk. What better material to work from than the functional, ordinary items that we used to carry to the re-cycle center and are becoming obsolete and precious?