Show & Tell

A beautiful evening. Thanks to everyone who came out for give take give. Here are a few photos from our show & tell. Coming soon...complete audio of the stories shared that night.

Kelly Nightengale

Earline James

Chris Lempa

Ashley Laird

Pat Slimmer

Jean Ann Pike

Eric Farnsworth

Dave Loewenstein

Amber Hansen

Give Take Give book release / Show & Tell

Join Dave Loewenstein and Give Take Give contributors for an evening of Show & Tell coinciding with the release of the beautiful, sixty page Give Take Give book. Project contributors and others will tell stories (if you have a story, you can share it!) about the beloved dumpster through the things they have found in it.

Saturday, May 11th
6 - 7pm  potluck
7 - 8      book release
8 - 10    show & tell 

at the Lawrence Percolator
(in the alley behind 913 Rhode Island)
Lawrence, KS

The Give Take Give exhibition at the Percolator runs from May 5 - 31

Cover of the give take give book

The Give Take Give project is supported by the Rocket Grants program which encourages work that is interdisciplinary and under-represented, and that engages audiences outside of established arts venues. The long-term goal of the program is to both encourage emerging and non-traditional art practices in the Kansas City region, and also to contribute to a thriving artists’ community. Awarded projects are therefore evaluated not only on the artistic merits of the proposed projects, but also on their capacity to stimulate further growth in a diverse and supportive art ecology characterized by unconventional and expansive forms of interaction, exchange, provocation, and surprise.

Inventory #13

Sunday,  March 17, 2013
Saint Patrick's Day
37˚ overcast

With sounds of the St. Patrick's Day parade echoing from a block away, I made my last inventory before sending off the Give Take Give book to be printed. When I peeked over the edge of the dumpster,  I saw this looking back at me -

It was bound to happen - eventually something of mine, some photo, letter, artwork was going to show up. I've run into the personal items of lots of people I know and many more I don't over the years. I thought about leaving the Spring 2008 issue of Lawrence Magazine there, then thought it would weird if somebody else found it thinking that maybe I had thrown it out, or worse placed it there for effect, and so decided to give it to my mom. I didn't tell her where I got it. With that resolved, I resumed my inventory to find a particularly wide assortment of cast-offs awaiting the gleaners.

box of assorted hair curlers
Smithsonian magazines
extra-large Legos
jar of shoe leather cleaner
ceramic soap dish
Esquire magazines
"The Paul E. Wilson Project for Innocence & Post conviction Remedies: 2011-2012 Manual"
wooden shape match children's game
quilt patterns
gray-blue winter coat
toy walkie-talkies

Piglet's Big Movie dvd
notebook with weekly schedules and motivational essay on running marathons
St. Joesph's Indian School flower stickers
Scottish coloring book
New Yorker magazines
Medela Starter Assistance Supplemental Nursing Device
Play Skool map of the U.S. showing annexed and purchased territories
East Texas State University "Special" magazine from 1973
"Pooh Has Ears" book
alphabet jigsaw puzzle

Comparing dumpsters in the Give Take Give alley

In the alley that runs in between New Hampshire and Rhode Island, from 9th and 10th streets there are five large blue city dumpsters, including the one behind the Social Service League. As a way of gauging the unique nature of what moves through the League dumpster, I took a walk down the alley to see what I'd find in the other four.

The alley looking north from 10th Street

Salvation Army dumpster

Dumpster behind 935 Rhode Island

Inside the dumpster behind 935 Rhode Island

Detail of trash in 935 Rhode Island dumpster

Lawrence Arts Center dumpsters including one for recycling cardboard

Bagged trash in Arts Center dumpster

Leaves in the Arts Center dumpster

Inventory #12

Friday, February 15th
11:00pm  31˚  snowing

Saturday, February 16th
2:30 pm  45˚  sunny

Glancing through the window of the Gaslight Tavern I noticed it was snowing all of a sudden, big flakes with almost no wind, landing in snow globe slow motion. I'd been planning on doing a night time inventory at the dumpster, but now with the snow what would I be able to see? I went anyway.

I love walking through falling snow as the harsh noise of the street becomes muffled and life slows down. Approaching the dumpster, it seemed empty - nothing protruding over its edges or spilling into the alley. I looked in just as a police car pulled away.

What could I write down? Maybe I saw the outline of a shoe and a curled up... body,  but who could say? I could get in (it would be harder getting out) but I decided not to. I'd rather imagine what's there than know, rather make-up a story than make another list of things. Look closely. What do you see?

Postscript: I returned about twelve hours later to see what would be revealed after the snow had melted, and was greeted by this herd of mismatched giraffes carefully placed along the dumpster's rounded edge.
To be continued...

Trash or Treasure?

Article in the Lawrence Journal - World about Give Take Give
by Sara Shepherd    February 10, 2013

One man's trash: Artist’s project highlights unusual gift economy in downtown alley

Inventory #11

Thursday, February 7th
3:00 pm
45˚ Sunny

coat hangers some of them nice wood ones from The Edgewater in Madison, Wisconsin
a couple of raw yams
straw hat
two pairs of flip-flops
two fresh banana peels
small colored bible quote / prayer cards

men's Footjoy golf shoes
many books including:
"The House on Hope Street" by Danielle Steele
"Introduction to Economic Science" by George Soule
"Gather Together in My Name" by Maya Angelou
"Discipline and the Disruptive Child" 
Kansas City Scouts tote bag
blue sidewalk chalk
one ping-pong ball
"They Grow Like Weeds" posters by Anne Geddes
Pioneer Investments white baseball cap
handwritten cardboard sign that read "Homeless & Pregnant  Cold, Hungry + Very Tired  Please Help!  Thanks"
close to a full set of 1958 World Book encyclopedias 
Bible Fun coloring book and mazes
dried dandelions carefully wrapped and packaged in plastic bags
1991-92 color proofs for cover of Explore Magazine from the University of Kansas