Cracked Pots has engaged the community in many ways, including:

• Dreaming up events to inspire people to creatively use reclaimed material.

• Diverting materials headed for local landfills to local residents & artists who make them into decorative & functional art.

• Linking artists, businesses, the public & environmental, educational & arts groups.

Cracked Pots sprang from the fertile minds of gardener Tess Beistel & artist MaryLou Abeln. Passionate about recycling, they invited local artists to show & sell their art (made from recycled materials, of course!) in select gardens around Portland. That garden art tour quickly evolved into the enormously successful two-day Cracked Pots Reuse Art Show held at Edgefield since 1998, which ultimately featured recycled art of over 100 artists.

Cracked Pots has always believed in the creative brilliance of children & has fostered that creativity through working with kids in school & encouraging them to see waste in new ways. We’ve brought artists together with businesses to create art from the business detritus; sponsored neighborhood curbside “giveaways”; developed a public/private/nonprofit collaboration that invites artists to create art from materials gleaned from the “dump” & paired artists with students to create recycled metal benches from student designs.