Our students collect trash in the city on our first excursion. They create an assemblage or collage from the trash and return it to the city in a site they select. As the week progresses we return to the sites, finding the art sometimes remains, sometimes moves, and sometimes disappears.

Before they place it back in the city, students talk about their work with one another:

Does it still look like trash?

What does it take to turn trash into art?

How did I get the ideas to transform my trash in this way?

Would it be a gift to the city?

Or would it just look like more trash?

Will someone find it and like it?

Am I willing to part with it?

Should art be given away or sold?

Our inspiration Graeme Sullivan,  http://www.streetworksart.com

Scroll down to see some students’ choices for temporary homes for their work:

Lillian placed her collage near chalk graffiti that was already there.

A robot creature finds a home at Civic Center Park.

This fragment poem was reconstructed from text found on the street.