Author: Christine

September 12, 2019

We’re Throwing a Party!

We’ve wrapped up our Kites for a Cause summer programming, (check out pics here) and we’re ready for a party! 😎

Come kick off the back-to-school season with a family-friendly art party and FUNdraiser at Spoke Bicycle Cafe in Frogtown, Friday, September 20th, 6-9pm.

Here’s what we’ve got planned:

🦋Exhibition of community-based fabric art from our summer workshops

👋🏼Meet and greet with the teaching artists behind the exhibit, Robin Banks and Sarah Farmer

🎟Raffle (great prizes for both kids and their adults, too!)

🎨Interactive neon-mural activity (come ready to paint!)

🎧Family-friendly music and dance party

🍻Food and beverages available for purchase (Adult-friendly and otherwise 😎)

April 25, 2019

Wild Art Mural Unveiling: RuckusRoots in the News!

After months of planning and hard work with 200 students from Hawthorne, CA, we finally unveiled our mural at Eucalyptus Elementary School last month! We spent a great afternoon with the 4th graders who participated in our Wild Art program as we celebrated their beautiful artwork and the creative reuse skills they learned throughout the program. The mural, composed of thousands of repurposed plastic bags collected by the students and turned into paintable canvases, is now installed in the school cafeteria for them to enjoy for years to come! Students also learned about urban wildlife throughout the program, and how their creative skills can be used to help nature and improve their community.

Check out the video for more! (We were featured by Hawthorne City News!)

[Show as slideshow]

For more from this program, check our our previous blog. To see past Wild Art programs click here.

December 5, 2018

Animation Video: Where Your Donation Dollars Go…

DONATE now

In 2018 over 4,000 single-use plastic bags were diverted from Los Angeles streets and over 500 underserved youth had access to quality sustainable arts education thanks to donors like you.

Our 2019 programs will provide opportunities in both classrooms and public workshops to empower Angelenos of all ages in three areas: visual arts, ecology and creative reuse. Our goal is to reach 600 students and divert another 12,000 single-use plastic bags from the environment. Even though we helped over 500 students last year, LA is still home to thousands of youth without access to arts education, and hundreds of miles of littered and polluted streets.

Your donation dollars have huge impact on our work:

$1 = 1 plastic bag diverted from landfill and turned into art

$2 = 1 hour of quality arts education for 1 student

$3 = 1 square foot of beautiful mural for an underserved community in LA

Case Study

Wild Art in at Eucalyptus Elementary School

We completed our latest Wild Art program at Eucalyptus Elementary School in Hawthorne, CA with nearly 200 3rd-4th graders. Your donations will go towards continuing the program with 5th graders next spring, and towards installing the mural of student paintings on campus. In Wild Art, student-artists gain visual art skills while learning about local wildlife and important creative reuse methods that can help protect endangered species in our city. The program has already diverted 4,000 plastic bags from landfill.

Here’s what Hawthorne Fine Arts Commissioner Danielle Marquez has to say about the program:

And here’s a blog with pictures: https://ruckusroots.org/wild-art-program-at-eucalyptus-elementary/

Thank you for your continued support of our work!

November 19, 2018

Testimonial from Hawthorne Fine Arts Commissioner

Find out what the City of Hawthorne, CA thinks about our work in this short video with Danielle Marquez, Fine Arts Commissioner for Hawthorne, CA and a parent volunteer for our program, Wild Art at Eucalyptus Elementary School:

May 16, 2018

TRASHformation: Shining Light, Building Shade

We were thrilled to be asked by our corporate partners, LUSH Cosmetics, to participate in their Western Regional Managers Conference in Scottsdale Arizona, May 2018. Not only did we learn more about the amazingly progressive ethic of LUSH and their Charity Pot program, but we also were able to share RuckusRoots’ mission with lots of wonderful Lushies and run a version of our TRASHformation program in support of No More Deaths, another LUSH-funded organization.

No More Deaths is a volunteer-led, Arizona-based organization aimed at stopping immigration-related deaths and dangerous situations on the US-Mexico border. They believe that saving the lives of those enduring treacherous, life-threatening treks across the desert is a humanitarian responsibility. However, they have faced much backlash both politically and legally for the simple act of providing water, food, and very basic medical attention to these suffering humans.

We designed a TRASHformation project to directly aid No More Deaths volunteers by offering both cooling shade and uplifting messages. Nearly 120 participants built our “Woven Hearts Art Tarp” in about three hours. It is made almost entirely out of recycled materials (LUSH charity pot lids, recycled fabric, etc.). Colorful zip ties connect thousands of lids, while hundreds of positive messages of solidarity adorn fabric circles glued to the lids. This 10’ x 7’ quilt-like piece will act as a mobile shade tarp and can be installed in many different ways—off of existing plants, vehicles, structures or poles. It will last for quite some time in the searing desert sun thanks to the durability of the materials, and its breathable nature will allow high desert winds to pass through without causing any danger.

Want to build one of your own? We put together an Instructable that guides you through exactly how to do it!