Materials for the Arts is a program of the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs, with support from the Departments of Sanitation and Education, that collects unneeded materials from businesses and individuals — everything from office furniture to arts supplies — and makes these donations available for free to nonprofits, government agencies, and public schools. Based out of a sprawling warehouse in Long Island City, MFTA diverts over 1 million pounds of materials a year from the waste stream to help enrich New York’s arts and creative community.

Join us for a tour of the warehouse to learn about how the program works and about the importance of reuse centers in a zero waste city. The tour includes a special viewing of “ Institutional Memory: 35 mm Slides from the Met’s Collection Reimagined,” a new exhibition of work created entirely from the recently digitized slide collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, with work created by artists Martina Mrongovius, Michael Kelly Williams, Andrea Wolf, and Dustin Yellin. The tour will be followed by a discussion with wine and light refreshments.

Open House New York thanks Materials for the Arts for making this tour possible.

This tour is part of Getting to Zero: New York + Waste, a year-long series of tours and talks exploring New York City’s waste system.