Artistic Sustainability Challenge Returns to Langley

The Langley Centennial Museum, in partnership with the Langley Arts Council, is inviting artists to submit works of art or ingenuity for a juried upcycling art and design exhibit. Upcycling involves taking a material that would otherwise be disposed of, and turning it into something valuable in a new way.

The challenge to artists is to create an art piece that includes 75% found or recovered, upcycled material. The items created can be either two or three-dimensional. Artists and designers must be 10 years of age or over. Submissions are due to the museum by March 31, and the exhibition will launch at the museum on Earth Day, April 22, continuing through to July 11.

The Township of Langley’s Sustainability team coordinated previous upcycling challenges with Willowbrook Shopping Centre, who also hosted the event. Eventually that event was no longer feasible.

“I know a lot of people were sad when we stopped doing the Upcycling Design Challenge,” said the Township’s Solid Waste Coordinator Lovena Morton, “so it is nice to revive it in this unique, new way.”

The Langley Centennial Museum has had to change course in the last year, making some planned exhibits less feasible for the 2021 schedule. This gave staff a chance to consider new ideas that could be enjoyed safely by visitors, while providing opportunities for local artists and upcycling inventors to gain exposure for their work.

“This allowed us the possibility to take up the torch, as it were, and see if we can build the project as an exhibit at the museum instead,” said Township of Langley Arts and Heritage Curator Kobi Christian.

For more details about the exhibition, or how to enter a piece into the show, please visit museum.tol.ca, email curator@tol.ca, or call 604-532-3536.