February Lunch & Learn Recap: Sustainable Crafting with GAM

Last week, we had such a fun Lunch & Learn with our friends at Giving Arts to Missoula (GAM)! Amber Kurzenbaum, Founder of GAM, and Akhi Boehmler, General Manager, talked about creative reuse and what GAM has meant to the Missoula community.

Kurzenbaum started off the event by talking about what GAM is: a creative reuse center. A creative reuse center is a place that sells second-hand art supplies. It’s similar to a thrift store, except that they find value in every item. Creative reuse centers are gaining popularity and can be found across the country. GAM opened in April 2024 and now there are stores in Helena, Livingston, and Billings!

Stores like GAM really believe in a zero waste ethos: instead of throwing old art supplies away, they’ll try to find new purpose for it. Boehmler said that they get a lot of really old art supplies and oftentimes they’re the items that people are most excited about!

Another point that Kurzenbaum and Boehmler talked about was GAM’s tier system for pricing. While they had initially started out as a free store, they came up with a more flexible pricing system because sometimes there are some very high value items. “Pay what you can, take what you need, and leave what you can” is what keeps GAM running smoothly. Kurzenbaum said this helps low income communities and GAM has served over 6,000 people in the Missoula area. Some other creative reuse stores have more consistent streams of funding, but until that happens for GAM, Kurzenbaum and Boehmler believe that their tiered pricing system is working well.

They concluded the Lunch & Learn by handing out an activity to make a Leprechaun Trap. While there was no time to actually put it together, attendees got the full kit and could make them at home.

Some final notes from the team at GAM:

• popular items to donate include introductory items (eg beginning sketching, painting, etc.); specialty items about photography and woodcuttting; and watercolor materials
• no art adjacent items (eg utentils, wine glasses, toilet paper rolls)

We hope that this Lunch & Learn provided useful information on creative reuse and GAM. Do you have any other ideas on how to craft more sustainably? Comment below! Thank you MCAT for filming and Great Harvest for providing the delicious lunch!