By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
That looks trashy, but at least the students at the fifth annual Trash to Trends recycled art competition have an excuse. Wednesday in St. John, students from eight schools in a 100-mile radius will compete by reusing refuse to create wearable fashion. St. John K-12 Art Teacher Brad Emery started the event with his wife five years ago and is pleased to see it grow.
"We always hoped the kids would enjoy it, but we've honestly been surprised by how positive and how warm the reception has been," he said. "The first couple of years we'd never done anything like this. Nobody had ever been a part of anything like this."
Brad and his wife run a photography business on the side, and first got the idea from seeing east coast photographers using dresses made of newspaper. As a third-grade teacher, he introduced the idea of a competition to USD 350 administration. Now Trash to Trends is officially hosted by the school.
Emery has moved to the art room this year, and that's given him a new perspective on the competition. He enjoys seeing the kids come in with grand ideas, then problem-solve as those ideas fail.
"They all start very confident, and say they're going to use newspaper, or old CDs, or old shopping bags," he said. "An amount of them have these grand ambitions, then when they get into the project, realize this is a lot more challenging than I thought it was going to be. That's the part I've really seen kids flourish.
"To be in the classroom with them this year, where they start to problem solve and they realize this isn't working the way I thought it would, how am I going to modify or adapt this design to get it to do what I want, to do it in a timeframe, and to make these materials shape and form the way I want them to."
This year's competition will feature artists from St. John, Larned, Macksville, Little River, McPherson, Medicine Lodge, and Greensburg. Emery said it's a nice way to bring art students together in a different way.
"With all other activities in school, you get to compete, and you get to go to events and show what you've got," he said. "I feel like with art, a lot of times, you're delivering finished pieces. That great, it's not to knock traditional art competitions, but I think the kids really enjoy getting to see the behind-the-scenes."
To top things off, a local DJ provides music for the runway show, and participants are treated to local pizza. "It's really been a good opportunity for kids to build some camaraderie, to enjoy time together, to kick back," Emery said, "and get to show off their skills I don't know they get a whole lot of other opportunities to do."
Students will be working at the Stafford County Annex, 210 E. Third Ave. in St. John, from 9:15 a.m. to noon. A short runway show will follow at 2 p.m., with awards announced after. The public is invited to come and go as the students turn their trash into trends.