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The Freeborn County Arts Initiative recently opened a new exhibition focusing on materials that might otherwise get thrown away.

The show, “UPCYCLED: Reclaiming waste for artistic environmentalism,” was created by local artist Susanne Crane and made possible by a grant through the Minnesota State Arts Board. The exhibit will be in the gallery through April 26.

The exhibit includes over 60 pieces that range from jewelry, canvas paintings, clay sculptures and other three-dimensional pieces. Even printed posters and flyers used to promote the exhibit, Crane said, were made using recycled paper.

This will be the first exhibit shown since the gallery’s renovation. The project involved replacing the gallery’s existing lighting with LED lights that can be dimmed. Funding for the renovation came from a donation by a patron in Minneapolis.

When making the pieces for this exhibit, Crane said she had to think outside the box to determine how to make a painting or sculpture out of entirely recycled or discarded materials. She ended up using old canvases, scraps of clay, candy wrappers, words and images from magazines and more.

Crane also saved paint that she said her students were going to throw away. Oftentimes, she mixed the salvaged paint together, creating a new color that she would work from. This sometimes led to her making art with colors she does not typically use.

“I think the challenge makes the work better,” she said. “I feel like this show gets better with… trying to solve these creative problems.”

Another very unique element Crane incorporated into her art was the use of discarded sim cards from cell phones. It has become a game of sorts among visitors to try and find all of the sim cards in the gallery while looking at the art.

Crane said she is happy with how the exhibition turned out. She likes to jokingly tell her friends, “This exhibit is garbage.”

Many pieces are for sale except for a few that Crane said she is not ready to part with. For example, the mixed media painting “Tree of Life” is made with items such as beads and other small trinkets that children brought for her.

While the show is about environmentalism, Crane said she has been particularly affected by the wildfires happening both in California and in other parts of the world. This can be seen in multiple pieces in the exhibit.

A lot of her art incorporates trees, she said, as they symbolize environmentalism in many different ways. She is also currently working on a piece titled “Space Garbage,” which will eventually be displayed on the gallery’s ceiling.

“I think artists are supposed to be communicating with people about what we should be thinking about or what we should be worried about,” she said.

Crane has been doing art exhibitions for almost 40 years. She said the Freeborn County Arts Initiative exhibits pull in people from about a four-state radius. Sometimes, people come from farther away.

Crane said she would like to thank The Minnesota State Arts Board, The Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council and Elisha Marin, the FCAI’s executive director, for supporting her in making this gallery possible.