Art show in Yellowknife encourages people to think twice about trash

Yellowknife artists showed off ways to turn trash into treasure over the weekend, during an art show that the head of Ecology North hopes got people thinking twice about garbage.

More than a dozen pieces were on display at the Wildcat Café during the annual Trash-formation Art Show — which, this year, was a collaboration with the Yellowknife Artist Co-operative.

"It's a great example to show how items, our old trash, can live another life," said Dawn Tremblay, the executive director of Ecology North. "Yellowknifers are so creative."

But more than just an impressive display of imagination, Tremblay hopes the show encouraged visitors to be more critical of the waste they generate.

"It's really important to remember we're at the end of the road, we don't want to have a land full instead of a landfill," she said. "We want to make sure that only the smallest amount possible goes into that landfill."

She also hoped the show inspired people.

"I hope they also look at their trash differently and maybe that pile of recycling turns into a pile of craft supplies to be shared with kids or neighbours."

Until the end of September, the Yellowknife Artist Co-operative is turning the Wildcat Café into a centre for artists. Its program coordinator, Sofia Grogono, says collaborating with Ecology North to host the show was a good fit.

"It [Trash-formation] is really in the spirit of Yellowknife and Old Town and this mentality of scavenging what you can and working with that," she said. "The Wildcat is that kind of space, where you … create beauty and goodness and community from what you have."