Upcycle St. Clair

St Clair Superior Development Corporation

Funding Received: 2013
Cleveland, OH
$375,000
Funding Period: 1 year and 5 months
upcyclepartsshop.org
Design & Architecture, Visual Arts, Other | Economic Development, Youth Development | Urban
https://Facebook.com/upcyclepartsshop
https://twitter.com/upcycle_parts
https://instagram.com/upcyclepartsshop
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Reclaiming a vacant lot with temporary programming, Upcycle St. Clair aims to connect with people who live and work in our neighborhood, not just those who come to visit it.
photo credit: Valerie Schumacher
Students from St. Martin de Porres High School paint Slovenian-inspired flowers on the sidewalk in front of Upcycle Parts Shop
photo credit: Peter Meehan
An Upcycle Parts Shop volunteer made a fully upcycled kurent head (from 600 plastic bags) that a small but mighty upcycle delegation marched with in the annual Kurentovanje Slovenian festival parade in February 2015. The parade marches down St. Clair Ave.
photo credit: Devon Fegen-Herdman
Upcycle Parts Shop staff co-facilitated an after school club with our local high school in 2013-2014 and taught the students to make plastic bottle flowers, which they installed outside the school.
photo credit: Nicole McGee
Marino Radolovich has lived in St. Clair since his family left Croatia when he was 10. He is a neighborhood fixture and stops into Upcycle Parts Shop daily. He picked up interest in our plastic bottle flowers & then designed his own upcycled plants!
photo credit: Nicole McGee

Upcycle St. Clair is a comprehensive arts-based strategy that shows how creative reuse can lift an entire Rust Belt neighborhood through education, community advancement and market-driven responses, demonstrating that creativity is the key to Cleveland's renewal.  The project's keystone piece is the launching of Cleveland's first creative reuse center:  Upcycle Parts Shop.  A community-based arts center, Upcycle Parts Shop is open 4 days a week in the heart of the St. Clair neighborhood and connects neighbors to art, to materials, and to one another.  

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See below for recent updates, press, and events from this project

press
Fresh Water Cleveland: Upcycle Parts Shop engages the community though creative reuse
Jun 16, 2016
Nicole McGee has been a self-described "reuse artist" for several years, but her practice wasn't always her profession. Read More
press
Confluence Denver: Turning Trash into Treasure, Creative Reuse Movement Boosts Urban Economies
Oct 23, 2015
Creative reuse centers are shops or warehouses where you can buy materials in bulk that would otherwise wind up in the landfill. Geared towards artists,... Read More
press
New Start: How to Upcycle Your Neighbourhood
Sep 17, 2015
In Cleveland, Ohio more than a third of people live below the poverty line. Lee Chilcote discovers how the upcycling movement is becoming a force... Read More
blog
St. Clair Superior Development Corporation: Upcycle St. Clair
Aug 15, 2014
By Nicole McGee Updates So much momentum! • In May a small team of colleagues traveled to the Sign Museum in Cincinnati to spend the... Read More
blog
St Clair Superior Development Corporation: Upcycle St Clair
May 07, 2014
By Nicole McGee Here at Upcycle St. Clair we’re launching our creative reuse center, beginning our fellowship programs, hiring summer youth workers, planning for mural... Read More
blog
St Clair Superior Development Corporation: Upcycle St Clair
Mar 18, 2014
Updates Upcycle St. Clair is a comprehensive, arts-based strategy working to demonstrate how creative reuse can lift an entire Rust Belt neighborhood through education, community... Read More
blog
St Clair Superior Development Corporation: Upcycle St Clair
Feb 04, 2014
Students from Saint Martin de Porres High School in the St. Clair neighborhood tour of a local company that reclaims wood from buildings and homes... Read More
blog
St Clair Superior Development Corporation: Upcycle St Clair
Dec 27, 2013
On a snowy December evening, staff at Collective Upcycle, St. Clair’s newest retail business, welcomed more than a dozen crafters to the boutique for a... Read More
blog
St Clair Superior Development Corporation: Upcycle St Clair
Nov 12, 2013
Updates Upcycling is a creative art process that reimagines leftover, discarded materials and creatively transforms them into new products or pieces of art. It’s gaining... Read More
blog
St Clair Superior Development Corporation: Upcycle St Clair
Oct 09, 2013
The work of two Cleveland upcyclists who sell at the Flea and were featured in a recent article by Cleveland Plain Dealer reporter Allison Carey;... Read More
blog
Upcycle St. Clair
Jul 31, 2013
Update Experimentation is a core value of our project and we’re fortunate to have energized creative people on our project team working together to make... Read More
blog
Urban Upcycle
Jun 28, 2013
Update This past month we’ve been shouting from the rooftops about UrbanUpcycle. We find ourselves talking about our new project to business owners, community residents,... Read More