LYNN — High fashion meets discarded trash in a fundraising Rubbish to Runway show and new exhibit at Galleries at Lynn Arts (GALA).
The Rubbish to Runway ReFashion Show is Friday night at 7 in Arts After Hours’ Black Box Theatre in Central Square. The show, a ticketed event, is sold out. But GALA will host a free opening reception for it and “Layers,” a new show featuring members’ work, from 5:30 to 8 p.m. After the runway show, models and designers will mingle with attendees and local artists in the main gallery at 25 Exchange St.
GALA has partnered with Long Way Home, a nonprofit that builds schools in Guatemala from trash and recycled materials. Proceeds will support both organizations.
Elizabeth Rose, Rubbish to Runway founder and board member of Long Way Home, discovered the organization during a 2005 family service trip to Guatemala to teach English. The Georgetown resident said a school has been built in San Juan Comalapa, constructed from recycled tires filled with dirt, bottles stuffed with trash and other discarded items.
Rose said the organization uses sustainable materials to construct self-sufficient schools that promote education, employment and environmental stewardship.
“For Rubbish to Runway, our designers will take your waste and make you a wonderful dress,” said Rose, with a smile.
Annette Sykes, GALA president, said this fashion event ties in perfectly with GALA’s “Layers” exhibition, which features textile-themed art made from cotton, polyester, wool and such non- traditional items as plastic, metal, sawdust and wood fibers.
“Art is fashion and fashion is art,” said Sykes.
For GALA’s exhibit, which continues through Feb. 5, a fun, funky photo booth has been set up in the gallery by Katy Bratun, a book illustrator from Salem. Genesis Grullon of Lynn’s Slay ‘N Glam, a cosmetics and beauty supply shop, will be on hand to make-up attendees before they enter the booth, where Noel Pichardo, a Raw Art Works graduate and MassArt student, will snap their photo. Amesbury’s Cynthia Smith created the featured outfit, a lovely dress made from an old rug she found in the street.
Other highlights include: Jason Goodwin and his family created wonderfully colorful cartoonish embroidered works that both delight and make one think. Nicole Werth takes quilted art in a whole new direction, producing works that picture Lynn sites like Red Rock Park from a bird’s-eye satellite view. Patty Klibansky, an art educator in Lynn Public Schools, contributes yarn art on an easel that encourages hands-on creativity from viewers.
Tia Cole, a GALA board member and artist, modeled in last year’s Rubbish to Runway show at Governor’s Academy in Newbury. When she and Sykes suggested that the fundraising event come to downtown Lynn in 2020, the idea was embraced by Rose.
Some 23 designers for Rubbish to Runway used recycled materials to create wearable art, about 50 pieces in all. The 25 models are volunteers. Each model will walk down the runway holding a designer bag created from old newspapers by Lynn-based Couture Planet.
For the (re)fashion show and exhibit, gorgeous fascinators (fancy hats) were made from all sorts of recycled materials, including discarded Hostess Ho-Hos packaging. Lisa Kawski, an interior designer, created a dress made entirely of discarded paint color sample cards. An outfit made by Rose’s husband, a retired emergency room physician, is adorned with tiddly-wink-like covers from intravenous blood vials that announce “Warning: Paralyzing Agent.”
Melissa Montello, a scientist at New England Biolabs, created three couture ensembles from trashed company banners and materials; her scarves are made of bubble wrap. NE Biolabs is a longtime sponsor of Rubbish to Runway.
Lynn Housing Authority & Neighborhood Development sponsors GALA’s gallery show.
For more information go to www.galleriesatlynnarts.org or www.lwhome.org.
