Located in part of the back office of our downtown gallery at 1418 Cornwall Ave., Bellingham, Allied Arts of Whatcom County's Allied Arts Reuse Thrift Store is a great place to discover your next upcycled project. The store is open Monday-Friday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday noon to 5 p.m.

The goal of the store is to take objects that are seen as un-useful or trash, remove them from the waste-stream, redefine them and demonstrate their value as art supplies. AARTS provides the community with resources and materials to make art, more avenues to explore creativity and new conceptions of art. For more information visit: alliedarts.org/AARTS.

Allied Arts of Whatcom County is a not-for-profit whose goal is to sustain and enrich our community through the arts. Among our many programs, we currently operate an art gallery for local artists, offer art education programs in local schools, and organize art opportunities for local artists to sell their work, as well providing other services to the community. In the year that the Thrift Store has been open:

? 4,000 pounds of materials have been pulled from the waste stream to create art;

? Our Art Education program has saved $3,500 in art supplies for the arts in the schools by using materials donated to the store;

? It has become the hub for creative reuse.

To make the store possible we will rely on the community for donations to stock our store. Some of the supplies we will accept are:

? Traditional art supplies including markers, brushes, stamps and canvas; paper (leftover letterhead, trimmed edges, mat board and foam core), textiles (fabric, yarn, samples, mill ends and patterns);

? Non-traditional art supplies including surplus, off-cuts, defects and remnants from manufacturing, architectural and interior samples (flooring, carpet samples, tile, laminate and fabric), bottle caps, buttons, beads, wire and notions, natural materials (feathers, sea shells, candles, wax).

If you have supplies that you want to donate and/or questions about what we will accept, please contact us at AARTS@alliedarts.org or call 360-676-8548 to arrange for us to pick them up or for you to drop them off! There is also an AARTS Classified section on our web site to list larger items and equipment for sale such as pottery wheels, light tables and tools.

Tag Kelly Hart is executive director of Allied Arts, 1418 Cornwall Ave., Bellingham. For more information call 360-676-8548, email AARTS@alliedarts.org or go online to alliedarts.org/AARTS.