The things we gave away, and the things we gained

The things we gave away, and the things we gained

Moving on without sending everything to landfill in a reciprocal economy.

Open Source Arts had to move out of our premises on Kirkstall Road at very short notice, moving quickly into temporary storage while we secure a new home to move into permanently.

It was a real rush of urgent activity. We were told the bulldozers were coming, so we acted quickly to move 11 years’ worth of projects, residencies, dreams, creations and ideas.

One thing that is close to our hearts as an organisation is taking care of the environment and being mindful of our carbon footprint. We try to reuse and recycle wherever possible, and we wanted to take the same Circular and Reciprocal Economy approach during this mad rush of moving.

So we are very proud to say that the skip we ordered was collected embarrassingly empty!

Instead, we managed to rehome and recycle a significant amount of stuff that could otherwise have ended up in landfill.

A huge thank you to the community who came down to help us put things into boxes, carry things up and down stairs, and keep our spirits up during this period of intense activity. There was a lot to do, and having people there to help made a HUGE difference.

Old unusable wood, broken monitors and electrical equipment, and old paint were passed on for recycling.

Usable wood, gardening supplies and pots, and really random things we’ve collected over the years were given to volunteers who helped us move. This included sunglasses, rucksacks and crockery.

A large number of craft supplies, fabric, and toddler and children’s games were given to Northern Green Gathering for the kids area.

Some things such as our trestle tables and exhibition televisions were sold.

Our beautiful pergola made at OSA, where we hosted outdoor performances, markets and served food at outdoor events in the OSA Yarden, was given to Leeds Community Sauna.

To help furnish their outdoor spaces down at Kirkstall Valley Farm, they also managed to rehome some of our outdoor benches made from whole tree trunks.

These tree trunks were rescued from the River Aire after flooding, where they had become lodged on a weir, and we carved them into extremely heavy solid benches. We were able to do this through our relationship with those working on the River Aire through our river stewardship work, organising river cleanups in Kirkstall. We’re really pleased that the trees continue to live in the Kirkstall valley where their story can continue.

As an open-plan, community space, over the years people have sometimes dropped off their own donations. One day this summer, we found two compost toilets, fully kitted out but not put together, in the OSA Yarden. These have also found their way to be reused at Leeds Community Sauna.

Quite a lot of items were rehomed through the local community, as well as via Olio and Facebook.

This included microwaves, toasters, LED light panels, stage lights, numerous office chairs, Cisco network switches, light palette desk, PVC canvas scraps, blackboards, tubs of mixed screws and bolts, an irrigation system for plants… and plenty of other bits and pieces.

It’s worth saying that rehoming and recycling all of these things does increase the amount of work.

It takes time to sort through things, work out what might still be useful, find someone who needs them, and get them from A to B. When you’re already in the middle of a very rushed move, it can be tempting to just put everything in a skip and move on.

But seeing that half-filled skip at the end, knowing how grateful people were to receive and be able to reuse, and knowing that so much less would end up in the bin, made it worthwhile.

We also were gifted with more fantastic helpers by gifting things away, as having been to collect items shared on the Olio app from OSA and learning about why we were giving things away, some people came back to help us move for the next couple days, in an unassuming and unnamed reciprocal relationship.

We’ve saved as much of the artwork as we can, too, and we’re looking forward to bringing it out again in the new venue.

Some of the regular circus activity with Yorkshire Circus that was housed at OSA has moved to The Loft. We upgraded two of their well-used sofas with a couple of ours, giving them another life with Re-Establish, rather than sending them off to be disposed of.

This move has been a huge amount of work, and there is still more to come as we work towards our new permanent home.

But amongst all the boxes, and general moving chaos, it’s been truly lovely to see so many things that have been part of Open Source Arts finding new homes and new uses, and making more friends in the process.