How do we define waste? What does it mean to be discarded—physically, socially, or culturally? Inspired by Dr. Lena’s Trash Art class, Sophie Collinet (ARAD ’25) curated Rebirthing The Unwanted, an exhibition that invited 21 emerging and mid-career NYC-based artists to explore these questions. Through reclaimed materials and unconventional processes, the works on view challenged perceptions of value, decay, and transformation, encouraging visitors to reconsider how we judge and discard people, objects, and places.
✨ Dive into Sophie’s text to explore the curatorial process and discover the ideas shaping the exhibition. ✨
“Rebirthing The Unwanted 21 emerging and mid-career NYC-based artists interpreted for us what it’s like to feel like trash, to use the trash, and to create waste, inviting visitors to delve deeply into each work and use it as an opportunity to rethink the way we judge and value people, objects, and places as “trashy”, “junk,” or “dirty”.”
For two months, from mid-October to mid-December 2024, I organized an open call, found a gallery space, selected the artists, and prepared the installation and exhibition days. I decided to organize an open call with an online form that was emailed to various art schools, posted online on platforms that came up when I typed “open call exhibition new york,” shared on social media by creating an Instagram account dedicated to the event, and posted flyers around Manhattan and Brooklyn.
However, I realize that as someone in charge of selecting the work, I was doomed to be a gatekeeper of sorts. I tried to design the open call application form in such a way that people’s art would only be selected if what it represented visually and how the artists responded to the question aligned with the theme of the exhibition. I was looking for works in a variety of media to maximize the chance that every visitor would feel connected to at least one work, and I wanted to make sure that it was easy to understand where the artists were coming from without any explanation. If the explanations were read, I wanted them to be interesting or intriguing, allowing visitors to ask themselves how they can reuse their waste, or to examine how they judge others and the things around them. If the applications met these two criteria, I wanted to include them, if space permitted.
After selecting the works, I worked a lot on curating the space, which I rented on Storefront from Annette. I thought about the narrative, how people move through the space, and how to best present each work. There are so many possibilities that it was very exciting to create the story that people would follow.
At the same time, I did a lot of back and forth with the artists, as I wanted to post more on the Instagram account to have an online archive, and to do some “marketing” before the exhibition.
I used a memorandum of understanding that I sent to each artist, asking them to read it and get back to me with a confirmation/question after reading it. I wanted to make sure we were all on the same page in terms of expectations, goals, timeline. This was well received by most people.
As for the visitor experience, since I didn’t want to overwhelm people with information due to the small space I was renting, I worked with the DFI at TC to print a qr code for the exhibition catalog on vinyl. This directed people to a website I built on Squarespace that included an explanation of each work and the price for anyone interested in purchasing the work.
The day before the show, a few artists and I were at the gallery to install everything, which took a very long time. Even though my main focus was for the artists to present their work and meet others while I curated a show in accordance with the Trash Art class assignment guidelines, we sold three pieces of art to wonderful people. It was such an amazing feeling to see people happy just by purchasing these works.
The day after, the first of the two, I was at the gallery all day and then prepared for the opening in the evening. It was a full house, which made the artists and me very happy! It was so nice to see so many people come to celebrate their friends, see art, chat and discover new things.
Arts Administration 
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