We’re thrilled to announce a new event to raise funds for upcoming programs AND raise your awareness of a beautiful way to keep plastic and other trash out of landfills.

Join us at Galactic Panther Gallery in Old Town Alexandria to hear about Sustainability Matters’ accomplishments this year and what’s next. This event will feature an art show by local artisans who are turning trash into treasure — you’ll have a chance to chat with the artists and check out some of their work for sale. We’ll provide some light snacks and a cash bar, to keep things festive.

Each new or renewed membership provides an entry to win one of our fabulous door prizes!

If you love art as much as conservation, this is an event you won’t want to miss.

Meet the artist: Ursula Seckel
I believe that art can be activism. I’ve long practiced creative reuse, making art from discarded materials and keeping them out of the waste stream. Nothing is truly disposable! My goal is to capture the viewer's curiosity with my use of unconventional art materials, as well as my sense of humor and whimsy. I’m not protective of my process or techniques. I want to inspire others to say, “I could make that!” and then I want you to do exactly that – make art – and keep more trash out of landfills by creating beauty.

Meet the artist: Alex Zealand
By gathering familiar trash objects in unfamiliar and dynamic contexts, Alex transforms the material, evoking life, growth, and hope.

During grad school at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, she began creating installations of discarded citrus peels as a visual and physical outlet to process her feelings of fragility, beauty and fear after the unexpected death of a close friend. Over the past 25 years Alex’s installations have expanded to encompass used coffee filters, driftwood, egg shells, old lumber, mechanics’ shop rags, discarded books and chicken bones.

Alexandra Radocchia Zealand lives in Northern Virginia.

Meet the artist: Brad Taylor
Brad Taylor has been working with can tabs (those things on the top of your beverage can) for over 20 years. His first major work was The Can Tab Chair, in which tabs were “woven” into the seating surface of a curved, red chaise lounge. After many years creating glue and paint based tab wall sculptures, recent work has returned to his roots - weaving tabs in new sculptural ways.