Spectacular Scraps!

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While visitors peruse our bookshop at 103 Orchard, upstairs in our classrooms crafty kids can create something from nothing! Student visitors tap into their own ingenuity during a new activity called Creative Re-use.

This program draws inspiration from the resourcefulness of the immigrants who lived in 97 Orchard Street, who stitched sock puppets, rag rugs, and even a scooter made from a crate and some wood scraps. These are great examples of the ways former residents creatively reused what they had to make the things they needed.

Using items from the recycling bins at the Museum and donations from Materials for the Arts, New York City’s ultimate reuse center, along with lots of imagination, students make toys and games. Recycling bins become treasure troves, scraps become dolls, puppets, airplanes, and even angry birds and Pokémon characters.

It’s been quite amazing to see the students’ resourcefulness and even more remarkable to watch them curiously look around with wonder at the possibility of making something from nothing.

–Posted by Miriam Bader, Director of Education