Calling all forgotten art supplies: meet your new home | Arts & Culture

As every student (and parent of a student) knows, sometimes you have to buy art supplies for a school project. They get used once, maybe twice for school supplies, and then what?

Starting today, they end up at the Allied Arts Reuse Thrift Store (AARTS).  

Artists, businesses, and community members are invited to donate their gently used art supplies to the store, and find new treasures of their own. 

Katie Borden with Allied Arts of Whatcom County, said there is a huge movement in Bellingham toward using reusable items, like bottle caps, as art. AARTS specializes in finding little things--buttons, wine corks, army men-- that artists would be hard pressed to find at other art supply stores. "Collections," Borden called them.

"People will collect things for us, I have a feeling," she said. 

It's a concept that Borden said Allied Arts of Whatcom County has had in the works for about two years, after similar stores in San Francisco, Oregon, and Vancouver, B.C. have been met with great success in their respective cities. 

About 50 volunteers from the community, WWU, and Whatcom Community College have been instrumental in getting the store up and running. 

AARTS will is celebrating their grand opening today, although the official celebration happens tonight at 5 p.m.- 9 p.m. at the AARTS store at 1418 Cornwall Ave. The event will be in conjunction with the Allied Arts gallery opening, and the Downtown Art Walk. 

Check it out when you're downtown! We got a little sneak preview before the official opening, and it certainly put us in "arts and crafts" mode!