Art teachers from the School District of Washington took a field trip to Perennial in St. Louis on Friday, Jan. 3, for their Professional Development Day.
The shop, located on the south side of St. Louis off of Broadway, focuses on taking old reusable supplies and teaching people how to re-purpose them as functional art projects.
The art teachers learned things like how to take old T-shirts and make yarn out of it for thick weaving, how to take old sweaters and make mittens and slippers, and reusing old paper to make beads and folding fans.
"We came back with so many ideas on how we can re-purpose things that would otherwise end up in a landfill. We were given mini-lessons in making T-shirt yarn, leather tooling, and paper bead making,” said Washington High School Art teacher Juli Schuster. “I highly recommend a visit. It makes you re-think everything you are using, how you are using it, how you are storing it, and how you are discarding it.”
The art teachers plan to show their students what they learned and put on a local art show to display students’ reusable art.
Photos from the visit to Perennial are below.
\
