Fall Letter From The Executive Director

Hello, ACR community! I hope that you are enjoying these early days of fall – it’s one of my favorite seasons for creative reuse. From Halloween costumes to holiday gifts, it’s a time when creative projects abound, and it’s also a time that I’m most aware of the sheer volume of stuff we consume as a culture. Watching the dizzying array of items on the seasonal aisle at the local drugstore as it transitions from Halloween to Thanksgiving to Christmas makes me redouble my commitment to conscious consumption and conservation. It reminds me to make more than I buy, to purchase wisely when I shop, and to repurpose what I don’t use. My favorite reuse activity for this time of year: wrapping gifts in interesting materials I have found at the center instead of buying wrapping paper. Not only does creative reuse make me feel good as a conservationist, it's just really fun to build creativity into all of life.Over the past couple of months, I have been spending my time getting very familiar with the history and current operations of ACR, and I’m so proud and excited to see the great work that’s been done and the exciting things ahead. Thanks to our center staff, volunteers and board of directors, the organization is vibrant and successful. Our donations pipeline is strong and we’ve been getting some incredible materials at the center – some of you may have come for one of the two recent fabric sales we hosted, which were a huge success. We’re getting more and more requests to engage the community in our reuse mission from schools, community organizations and others, and we just received a grant award from the City of Austin Cultural Arts Division to extend our Art of Reuse workshops in 2018. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to all of you for making it all possible. All of this success means that now is the time to build a solid plan for the future of the organization. Over the next few months, one of the biggest things I’ll be working on with the staff and board of directors is a plan for expanding the center when our lease ends in July 2018. We’ve only just begun this process, but it’s exciting to think about having more space to support and grow the work we do. And, thanks once again to the Cultural Arts Division, we received a grant award from the Art Space Assistance Program to help offset some of our future space costs. On every level, it’s an exciting time to be a part of Austin Creative Reuse and I look forward to building our future together. Thank you again for all that you do to support ACR’s mission.  Sincerely,  Isadora McKeonExecutive Director P.S. I did my first TV appearance for ACR on CBS Austin! Check it out here.