Trash Mash-Up’s mission is to bring vitality to the community.  Using public art projects, we connect our creative traditions to our collective future.  We are committed to realizing the potential value in our everyday disposable objects by transforming them into innovative “Maskostumes”.  Through workshops and public pageants, we support extended communities and an environmentally conscious culture.

Trash Mash-up (TMU) is a collaborative community art project.  Using disposable  materials, collected before they enter the waste stream, participants construct “Maskostumes” which are original pageant masks and costumes inspired by traditions from around the world.  TMU participants come from various demographic backgrounds and are most often associated with an organization, whether it is a school, care facility, or community arts center.  Ideally,  people from diverse backgrounds have the opportunity to work collectively on the “Maskostumes”.  TMU enriches our community by developing creative connections amongst the participants in addition to raising awareness about cultural traditions and environmental  issues.  This project reduces waste and inspires people to see each other and our environment in a new way. 

    The founding members of Trash Mash-Up graduated from the Dell'Arte International School of Physical  Theatre.  Drawing from their talent for creating original theatrical productions and their commitment to serving the larger community, TMU is a socially and environmentally conscious art project.  TMU shares cultural traditions with diverse communities in public performances and workshops.  Reducing waste by using trash to make art, TMU reminds all of San Francisco that one person's trash could become an entire city's treasure.

    Trash Mash-Up offers workshops for all ages. Currently, TMU is partnering with KIPP San Francisco Bay Academy.  KIPP hosts TMU as a part of their Saturday school curriculum.  TMU has begun a partnership with the San Francisco Public Library’s Western Addition Reading Center at the African American Art & Culture Complex and  Safe Haven Program at the Buchanan YMCA.

The founding artists of Trash Mash-Up offer quality artistic experiences to those     underserved.  With the known benefits resulting from participating in arts programs, TMU creates community art opportunities where they are needed most. We believe that socially   responsible arts programming fosters communication, creativity and collaboration which are vital for community’s present and future. We also see a need to increase awareness about the waste cycle and recycling, another key to a healthy community. 

    Trash Mash-Up culminates with a Mash-Up Bash, a public performance pageant.  Transforming parks and city squares with a visual spectacle made of music, movement, and “Maskostumes”, spectators enjoy works of art created from things discarded by one person and then given new life through another’s imagination.  The trashcan on the corner will come to life, telling the story of those who threw the material away and of those who fashioned it into a piece of art.  Art and trash both become the intersection that represent this time and place.  These materials will remain on this planet long after we are all gone and will define our culture for those of the future.  TMU creates artifacts relevant to our community.  With trash bag boas and bottle-cap chain mail, Trash Mash-Up builds creative connections and raises  environmental awareness throughout our community as a new urban tradition is fostered.