Trash Menagerie at the Peabody Essex

Filter Rabbit, 2000, Tom Deininger, 13 x 7 x 5 inches, used cigarette filters, ceramic form;
Sulphur Blue Smeck, 2005, Michelle Stitzlein, 62 x 84 x 11 inches, mixed junk, photo credit: Tom Little;
Camel, 2006, Ann Smith, 9 x 11 x 3 inches, used electronic parts;
All photos from the Peabody Essex Museum.

They say that one man's trash is another man's treasure, and the upcoming exhibit at the Peabody Essex Museum proves it.

Trash Menagerie is a unique, interactive exhibit featuring a zooful of creatures created from, you guessed it, trash.  "From baking tins to water bottles, piano keys to plastic bags, the 24 artists featured in Trash Menagerie create playful artworks of animals through the imaginative reuse of rubbish," says the museum.

In addition to seeing the garbage critters, visitors to the museum's Art & Nature Center will have the opportunity to create recycled art of their own at the trash collage magnetic board, and to make one of the exhibit's highlights, a shadow horse made from discarded umbrellas, frolic and gallop across the wall.

The museum will celebrate the grand opening of Trash Menagerie, on June 20, with a host of family-friendly activities.  Visitors can work with the artists whose work is on display to make their own "trashimals," watch Wall-E and Garbage Warrior, a documentary about sustainable architecture, and more.  All events are included with museum admission. Check out the museum's calendar for more information about opening day.

If you can't make it to the Peabody Essex on the 20th, don't worry.  Trash Menagerie will be on display through May of 2010, so you can drop by any time you need some inspiration for what to do with all those empty egg cartons, tin cans, plastic bottles, and other food-related junk.