TMU has a new blog

Trash Mash-Up has launched their new website and blog. Please follow TMU there. This will be the last post on blogger. Its has been fun and hope you continue to follow TMU.

Trash Mash-Up Looking Forward to 2011 and Back on 2010

As 2010 comes to a close, we would like to thank our supporters who have encouraged us over the past five years. 2010 brought many amazing gifts and opportunities for Trash Mash-Up. TMU continued its fun and educational programs serving children in San Francisco’s most undeserved neighborhoods by hosting 28 workshops with 4,500 participants total, 6 exhibits and conferences, and 5 Mash-Up Bashes. We wanted to take this opportunity to share with you the highlights.

• TMU’s “Maskostumes” were on display at the Sustainability Education: Connecting Art, Science, and Design Seminar at the Center for Ecoliteracy in Berkeley, California as well as the California Public Utilities Commission.
  
• Trash Mash-Up was thrilled to be featured again at the San Francisco Green Festival. The SF Green Festival, the nation’s largest green consumer living event, is joint project of Global Exchange and Green America.
• TMU connected with thousands at the exciting events of 2010. TMU performed for 250,000 specators in the street of the Mission District at Carnaval SF.
  
• At Stern Grove Festival, Michael Franti’s Power to the Peaceful Family Matinee and the Mill Valley Film Festival, TMU created new connections with families and children from the San Francisco Bay Area.
• TMU also returned to the location of its first Mash-Up Bash four years ago at the Raymond Kimbell Athletic Field. The athletic field had been renovated by City Fields Foundation and its Ribbon Cutting Ceremony was in conjunction with Sunday Streets.
  
• Trash Mash-Up deepened it partnership with the San Francisco Public Library. TMU offered seven workshops at three different branches over the course of the year.
  
• TMU also continued its partnership with Mo’Magic, CommunityGrows!, and the Whitney Young Child Development Center.

Trash Mash-Up has also been in press 2010. We are thrilled to have such great supporters who continue to spread the good word about TMU.

• TMU was featured in the Japanese magazine, Sotokoto, one of thirteen international organizations improving the world.
• TMU was featured in San Francisco location publications, the SF Chronicle, SF Examiner and the SF Weekly.
• TMU was also featured on The Plastiki Blog, which covered the story of the boat made of 12,500 plastic PET bottles, which sailed from San Francisco to Sydney, in order to raise awareness of plastic pollution.

We look forward to continuing our urban tradition where others are inspired to see each other and our environment in a new way. Each year we strengthen our mission to enrich our community by developing creative connections through workshops and performances. We hope that through our actions, people are inspired to not only use less and reuse more but to also find their own way to become engaged in their community.

We all understand the importance of learning thought the arts, and the confidence built from making something with our hands. Unfortunately, we are also aware of the crippling effect of State budget cuts on our public schools and nonprofit service organizations. TMU keeps the cost per workshop low to reach as many students and community partners as possible and looks to match the workshop fee with donations from our supporters. Every dollar you donate to Trash Mash-Up has an immediate and direct impact on our ability to keep producing workshops, exhibits and Mash-Up Bashes. Please consider making any size donation to Trash Mash-Up.

Best Wishes and Happy New Year!! Bridget & Jessie McCracken

TMU kicks off the summer with San Francisco Carnaval

Dear Friends,
As the April showers bring May flowers Trash Mash-Up is excited to hit the parks and take back our city’s public spaces for community events. The mission of Trash Mash-Up is to offer quality arts program in a community of need. Through creative reuse and multi-cultural education, TMU strives to encourage local youth in an eco-friendly life style that celebrates cultural diversity. Trash Mash-Up acts as a catalyst to unify a community and supports our neighborhood centers with quality arts programming.

We are pleased to announce these up and coming workshops:
SF Public Library Bernal Heights Branch on 5/22 and 8/23 from 1:00-2:30pm
SF Public Library Western Addition Branch on 7/17 and 7/31; 8/14 and 8/28 from 2-4pm
Hamilton Recreation Center, Western Addition on 7/23 and 7/30 from 3:30-5
Stern Grove Music Festival on August 1st from Noon-1pm

We spend the year hosting workshops where we create “Maskostumes” with local youth and then exhibit these pieces in community events. A true cross-section of local residents come together in shared arts experience at Trash Mash-Up’s “Mash-Up Bashes”. 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 given new life through another’s imagination. Through workshops and public performances, Trash Mash-Up encourages people to feel connected to one another, to be proud of their creative achievements, and to be responsible for their environment.

We are excited about two up coming “Mash-Up Bashes”:
San Francisco Carnaval, Sunday, May 30th
And TMU’s “Mash-Up Bash” Kimball Playground, Western Addition Sunday, September 19th

As one of the city’s most spectacular traditions, San Francisco Carnaval showcases the very best of Latin American and Caribbean cultures and traditions with a diverse array of food, music, dance and artistry, including works created by the talented community of Mission District residents and Bay Area artists. This year, TMU has partnered with Abraham Lincol High School Drama Club; the Whitney Young Child Development Center Bay View Site Dancers and Recology, formerly Norcal Waste Systems. This event is guaranteed fun and excitement.

Save the date for the September 19th “Mash-Up Bash”, it will be a true celebration. Bridget and I created TMU five years ago and have been offering quality arts programming in neighborhood centers and schools ever since. We look forward to gathering our TMU partners and participants for a wonderful afternoon.

TMU is always in need of volunteers. Individuals who are interested in participating in workshops and parades should contact us by email at trashmashup@gmail.com

Another way to support Trash Mash-Up and show your TMU pride is by purchasing a one-of-a-kind shirts, originally designed and silk screened by TMU’s own Jessie McCracken! TMU’s boutique is full of colorful, gently used T-shirts of all sizes. The T-shirts are $15-$20, sliding scale plus shipping and handling. Saving the world never looked so good! Send TMU an email with your size request.


Trash Mash-Up would like to share with you our great accolades in the press. TMU was featured in Japan's Sotokoto Magazine The article features international nonprofits that are changing the world. We are proud to be in company of such great people making change in their communities. TMU featured as an emerging nonprofit in the San Francisco Examiner . We are so pleased to be recognized in the Bay Area as a nonprofit to watch. We hope you will continue to support Trash Mash-Up as we grow and thrive.

Sincerely,
Bridget and Jessie McCracken
Managing and Artistic Directors

What Gives You the Most Earth Day Guilt

According to a recent Reader’s Digest poll, the greatest green guilt internationally was not recycling enough. Of the 15 countries polled in the study, nine countries reported a lack in recycling as the No. 1 green guilt of their respondents, followed by wasting water. See link below for the article.

Earth911 has a great resource online that can help anyone in the USA find a recycling center. Go to, http://earth911.com/

Those who live in a city without curbside recycling can be more vocal with local leaders.

http://www.rd.com/your-america-inspiring-people-and-stories/what-gives-you-the-most-earth-day-guilt--around-the-world-with-one-question/article175466.html

Trash Mash-Up Wishes you the Best in the New Year

Dear Friends,
As 2009 comes to a close, we would like to thank you for your support over the past four years. 2009 brought many amazing gifts and opportunities for Trash Mash-Up. TMU continued its fun and educational programs serving children in San Francisco’s most undeserved neighborhoods with 30 workshops, 10 exhibits and events, and 8 Mash-Up Bashes. We wanted to take this opportunity to share with you the highlights.

TMU’s “Maskostumes” were on display at the California Public Utilities Commission offices across from San Francisco City Hall. We tabled for their Environmental Awareness Day, working with 500 students in take home projects. Bridget led students from John Muir Elementary in a Mash-Up Bash that they had rehearsed in workshops she conducted.

Trash Mash-Up established new partnerships with Support for Families, Opportunity Impact, and the Whitney Young Child Development Center. Over the summer, TMU offered workshops and summer time fun for these programs.

Trash Mash-Up was thrilled to be featured at the San Francisco Green Festival. The SF Green Festival, the nation’s largest green consumer living event, is joint project of Global Exchange and Green America. The San Francisco Green Festival had more than 40,000 participants who mingled with 125 visionary speakers amidst over 350 green exhibits.

The Green Festival was just one of many extraordinary events that Trash Mash-Up participated in this fall. TMU exhibited at the Tides Momentum Leadership Conference, Independent Artists' Week Go Green Event , 10th Anniversary Expo of Independent Arts, Arts Providers Alliance of SF Arts Education Resource Fair; hosted a Mash-Up Bash at the Live Debris event in Portland, OR and the Opening of Yubisumo!; and offered workshops at the Woodstock West Festival and CommunityGrows! Halloween Bash and Christmas Celebration.

Trash Mash-Up’s very own, Bridget McCracken, was awarded the first ever, San Francisco State University Institute for Civic and Community Engagement Staff Community Engagement Award. This award was presented to Bridget, as a civic leader, to acknowledge her work with TMU.

Trash Mash-Up has also been in press lately. Associated Press picked up the TMU story in the Morning Sun and was featured in papers like the Chicago Tribune and USA Today. Fake Plastic Fish and Everyday Trash, two environmental bloggers have posted about us. We are thrilled to have such great supporters who continue to spread the good word about TMU.

We look forward to continuing our urban tradition where others are inspired to see each other and our environment in a new way. We are so pleased with the success of Trash Mash-Up. Each year we strengthen our mission to enrich our community by developing creative connections through workshops and performances. We hope that through our actions people are inspired to not only use less and reuse more but to also find their own way to become engaged in their community. Thank you for your support.

Best Wishes and Happy New Year!!
Bridget & Jessie McCracken

TMU at SF Green Fest

Dear Friends,

Trash Mash-Up is excited to be featured at the San Francisco Green Festival this weekend. TMU will be offering a workshop in the Kids Zone from 12 to 2pm on Friday—Sunday, November 13-15. The SF Green Festival, the nation’s largest green consumer living event, is at the San Francisco Conference Center. A joint project of Global Exchange and Green America (formerly Co-op America), Green Festival is a forum to explore and build sustainable solutions that will equally benefit communities and the environment. The San Francisco Green Festival expects more than 40,000 participants to mingle with 125 visionary speakers amidst over 350 green exhibits. Check out the website for the full schedule of event, http://www.greenfestivals.org/san-francisco/


The Green Festival is just one of many extraordinary events that Trash Mash-Up has participated in this fall. TMU exhibited at the Tides Momentum Leadership Conference, Independent Artists' Week Go Green Event , 10th Anniversary Expo of Independent Arts, Arts Providers Alliance of SF Arts Education Resource Fair; hosted a Mash-Up Bash at the Live Debris event in Portland, OR and the Opening of Yubisumo!; and offered workshops at the Woodstock West Festival and CommunityGrows! Halloween Bash.

Trash Mash-Up has also been in press lately. Fake Plastic Fish and Everyday Trash, two environmental bloggers have posted about us. We are thrilled to have such great supporters who continue to spread the good word about TMU. Check out the postings at: http://fakeplasticfish.com/2009/11/three-trashy-women/ and http://everydaytrash.com/2009/10/31/trash-mash-up/

Thanks for your continued support!
Best--
Bridget and Jessie McCracken

Summertime fun with Trash Mash-Up

Summertime Greetings from your friends at Trash Mash-Up!

Trash Mash-Up is pleased to announce the culmination of two new partnerships with Opportunity Impact and the Whitney Young Child Development Center. This summer TMU has offered workshops and summer time fun for these programs. As a community art project, a critical part of our mission is to create connections within a community. Because of this, we are able to support the amazing work that is happening in District 5. This is truly a dynamic community. There is a great need for services but there is also a fantastic network of community members that are working to support our local youth.

Trash Mash-Up with the Whitney Young Child Development Center students will be featured at the District 5 Youth Art Showcase at Koret Auditorium at the Main Branch of the San Francisco Main Library on Friday, July 31 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm. This event showcases the children and youth of District 5 and is hosted by Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi and Mayor Newsom.

Trash Mash-Up will be exhibiting masks completed through workshops with Opportunity Impact at the Mo' MAGIC Youth Art Show. The opening event is on Friday, July 31 from 5:00-8:00pm at the African American Arts and Culture Complex located at 762 Fulton Street, 2nd floor, San Francisco, California. The exhibit is open Monday -- Saturday from 12:00--5:00pm through the end of August. Opportunity Impact offers life skills and case management services to the at-rick youth living in public housing. Opportunity Impact provides at-risk youth living in public housing with the support, resources and skills they need to create new opportunities and realize a brighter future.

Trash Mash-Up will be parading at the Sixth Annual Western Addition National Night Out. The goals of this event include increasing crime awareness, generating support for anti-crime programs, strengthening police-community partnerships, and sending a message that there are many positive activities in the community. The Night Out is sponsored by Community Partners United, Supervisor Mirkarimi, the Mayor's Office, Hayes Valley Playground, Northern Station, Mo' Magic, and Safety Network. The Eight Annual Western Addition National Night Out is on Tuesday, August 7th from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm at Hayes Valley Playground at 699 Hayes Street.

We are so pleased with the success of Trash Mash-Up. Each year we strengthen our mission to enrich our community with creative connections through workshops and performances. We hope that through our actions people are inspired to not only use less and reuse more but to also find their own way to become engaged in their community.

Thank you for your continuing support!Best--Bridget and Jessie McCracken

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