All my walls are blank, and I don't wanna pay

January 4, 2009 8:27 AM

Can I "dumpster dive" for free art by hanging around art colleges at the end of a semester and snagging unwanted class projects? What would be the protocol for doing such a thing? Is there any other situation in which I could snag free art?
posted by sandking to media & arts (42 comments total)

I don't know about the legality/ethics of 'dumpster diving' for the free art, but could you ask at art colleges if you could put a note on their notice boards requesting unwanted art projects?

I'm sure art students have a ton of stuff they throw away due to lack of space or whatever. They'd probably be pleased to know that someone was giving their works of art a home!

I guess the only potential problem would be you might end up being offered stuff you don't like or want.
posted by schmoo at 8:37 AM on January 4

Can I "dumpster dive" for free art by hanging around art colleges at the end of a semester and snagging unwanted class projects?

You can, but I'm betting most colleges have a camera system installed throughout the canvas, so you'll probably get caught. The best bet is to ask some of the teachers directly, but prepared for a variety of answers from "sure" to "Fuck no and if I catch you dumper diving I will personally beat your ass"
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:51 AM on January 4

As a former art student and a current dumpster diver I'd say it's pretty shady. Quite a bit winds up in the dumpster to be sure, but nearly all art schools will have a student sale where you can pick up some great pieces for next to nothing. The students usually get the money, or at the very least they get credit towards their supply debt. Support the artists!
posted by piedmont at 8:56 AM on January 4 [5 favorites]

Seconding piedmont. You should be able to get student art at end-of-semester/end-of-year sales. In my experience, the prices are the next best thing to free, and you're helping 'em out.
posted by mumkin at 9:00 AM on January 4

You could post a wanted on your local freecycle.

FYI: Some locals have laws outlawing dumpster diving. Also some places the contents of a dumpster belong to the trash company and dumpster diving is technically theft.
posted by Mitheral at 9:00 AM on January 4

I agree with piedmont.

Alternately, you could make art yourself.
posted by box at 9:06 AM on January 4 [2 favorites]

I once picked up some "used canvases" -- pieces of practice art that were being thrown out. This has livened many an otherwise blank corner.
posted by amtho at 9:06 AM on January 4

I think it kind of depends on where the dumpsters are located and how the college views dumpster diving. I live in a college town and at the end of the semesters, there are big roll off dumpsters outside of the dorms that fill up quickly with stuff. A lot of people go dig through these dumpsters and rescue all kinds of furniture, books and clothes. There was even an article in the local newspaper last year about all the great stuff you can dumpster dive for from these dumpsters. I have heard that it is taboo to go through the small dumpsters that are placed around campus, but I have stealthily rescued discarded books from these. If I get hassled, I say that I am looking for cardboard boxes because I'm preparing to move. The key is to be fast and not make a mess or a big scene.

I did hear a funny story from an artist once who said he threw away some of his early college art projects and years later, went to a party and saw the discarded artwork hanging on the wall because someone rescued it from the trash!

I do think a lot of college students keep their artwork. Canvases can be reused by painting over them. Also, art students tend to want to keep their art for their portfolios.
posted by pluckysparrow at 9:07 AM on January 4

Art departments have an end-of-semester cleanup day on which they open up lockers, sweep out work spaces, and haul stuff to the dumpsters. Your offer to help will almost certainly be accepted if you ask the right person (for some reason a lot of students sleep in that day), and you'll get to choose pieces before they get dumpster scars.

The right person = the TA or instructor who's responsible for producing an empty studio space.
posted by gum at 9:10 AM on January 4

at my art school they posted tons of signs that anything left on the last day of the term would be discarded, so there was no expectation of ownership to be had for that canvas you left lying around. people took leftover canvasses and whatnot else when students dropped it all into the hallways while cleaning out their class rooms and nobody complained.

that being said - if I as a relatively poor student (aren't they all?) figured out that a non-enrolled person made a trip to my campus to snatch up the stuff they could afford but I couldn't, I'd rat you out and try to get security to kick you out. this is mainly the case because I once caught someone mistaking my monitor for an unwanted canvas. turns out he lived in the area and came to our campus every now and then to support his income and habit.
posted by krautland at 9:12 AM on January 4 [1 favorite]

If you hang something on your wall with enough conviction, it becomes art. Start looking around. If you can't find some "found" art, you can hang a piece of fabric- batik, mudcloth, etc., on the wall to good effect. If you are a good BSer, you can hang a piece of blank ricepaper on the wall and convince everyone it is a profound work of art. It worked for Malevich, it can work for you.

Malevich was a genius. I mean him no disrespect.
posted by acrasis at 9:16 AM on January 4

I think taking art out of the dumpster is really tacky.

To say, "I value your art enough to take it if it's free, but not enough for me to compensate you for it," is very tacky and demeaning to the artist's talent and work.

Art departments have an end-of-semester cleanup day ... Your offer to help will almost certainly be accepted if you ask the right person

Unknown weirdo volunteers to help at end-of-semester cleanup day, on the off chance he can snag some art he's not willing to pay for ... my guess is that this "offer to help" will be viewed as precisely what it is, a sleazy and cheap attempt to freeload off some hard-working students' artistic efforts.

Any art department employee in his/her right mind would protect their students from someone who tried to do this.
posted by jayder at 9:45 AM on January 4 [4 favorites]

"Fuck no and if I catch you dumper diving I will personally beat your ass"

It's weird how some people have that attitude, isn't it? As a current dumpster diver and artist, if I've thrown something away, that means I couldn't re-use it myself (either as-is or as part of another project), don't like it, don't have room for it, didn't think I could sell it, and didn't want to store it. I think people are imagining that you'll find all these great high-quality stretched canvases, but I don't think that's so - most of those are going to be re-used. (like pluckysparrow said.) Maybe a whole pile of prints that someone was experimenting with, great big scraps of paper with charcoal studies that have smeared anyway, that sort of thing.

As for what krautland mentioned - for God's sake, don't go in any of the buildings.

I guess it all kind of depends on why you want this free art (I'm assuming it's for your own home, yes?), and what kind of stuff you'd actually put up. I really think piedmont has the best idea - a couple of interesting pieces would look a lot cooler than a whole pile of crap pulled from the dumpster. (er, depending on your outlook, of course)
posted by HopperFan at 9:50 AM on January 4 [1 favorite]

Tag sales are a great source of this stuff.
posted by availablelight at 9:57 AM on January 4

Another thought --

Here's why I think this is a really bad idea and unfair to the students: If you value it enough to dig around in a dumpster, you are willing to spend something on the art --- namely, the time and effort to find the art. However, you are apparently not willing to pay the artists anything. If you are going to enliven your surroundings with the artistic efforts of students, who almost without exception are struggling to get by, you have a moral obligation to pay them for the work.

The students have no way of finding you, the potential buyer. They are students. They are not represented by a gallery. Once the semester is over, they have to rush off to work to support themselves. They don't have the resources to sell their work. You, on the other hand, know precisely where to find them (the art college) and you rush over, take advantage of their situation, and cull their discarded artworks. Taking advantage of a situation where a seller of a good or service does not have the resources to find buyers willing to pay what a good or service is worth, to get the good or service cheaply or for free, is classic exploitation.

It is exploitative to make a deliberate effort to find students' discarded artworks "for free." If you value it enough to take it, you should pay the students.
posted by jayder at 10:03 AM on January 4 [3 favorites]

This kind of thing is the main reason why I usually shred any prints I throw out. I worked hard to make them and I believe that if I have no use for them, no one else probably will. Yet, one time, I found some of my contact prints I made taped back together on someone else's wall. I didn't mention the fact that they were mine, but it showed me exactly what kind of person they were.

Nthing the student art sales. At my university, we all worked pretty damn hard for our art. Many of us lost a ton of sleep, didn't eat for lack of time or money, and spent most of the day without seeing the sun. All I'd ever ask for in exchange for my artwork sometimes is that you ask me nicely. Lots of times, I have given away some of my assignment pieces because someone has asked "how much?". If I do charge, I charge enough for the meal I forgot to eat earlier or towards a new textbook.

Point is, quit being a cheap-ass and pay for the artwork.
posted by arishaun at 10:11 AM on January 4 [2 favorites]

I don't think you should worry about the dumpster-diving part. However, the art you're going to be getting out of the dumpsters just isn't going to be that good in the first place.

Talk to some of the students. I'm sure you could get some pretty cool stuff for the asking or a little bit more.
posted by dunkadunc at 10:11 AM on January 4

i don't understand the hate going on here. if for some bizarre reason you try to claim it as your own work, i'd say that was pretty tacky, but salvaging something that someone else saw no value in is not uncommon. take it, display it, and enjoy it. geesh. and if i were an artist, i don't know why i'd hesitate to say, 'hey! i did that!' and take some pride in it if i happened to see it hanging somewhere.
posted by msconduct at 10:37 AM on January 4 [1 favorite]

I can think of no better way to encourage art students than to pay them - even a small amount - for something you like. They aren't doing it because they like filling blank sheets of paper with colors. They're doing it because, even as students, they have something to express. Knowing that expression means something to somebody else helps create the art world. You don't participate in the art world by frustrating this exchange.
posted by jet_silver at 10:38 AM on January 4

Dumpster diving for bagels is ethically different to dumpster diving for art. Unlike a bagel, a work of art is created as a form of personal self-expression: the work is the intellectual property of the person who created it, and is likely to have personal meaning to its creator. This may be true even for unsuccessful attempts at art that are later discarded.

Artists ought to have the right to discard or destroy their work, with the expectation that it will not be later stolen. Many artists would feel violated by this theft - not because they were not paid for their labour, but because the were denied the right to control what happens to their work. The ethical arguments for regular dumpster diving (victimless crime, reducing needless waste, quasi-marxist re-distribution of resources) do not apply to art.

Is there any other situation in which I could snag free art?

a) Advertise (e.g. art college notice board, or Craigslist) that you are interested in collecting discarded art, and ask artists and others to donate their work to you; or
b) Make some!
posted by hot soup girl at 10:41 AM on January 4 [3 favorites]

...and the other ethical issue with dumpster diving for art is that there is usually no way to properly credit/identify the artist.
posted by availablelight at 10:56 AM on January 4

"The ethical arguments for regular dumpster diving (victimless crime, reducing needless waste, quasi-marxist re-distribution of resources) do not apply to art."

Oh good grief. It's a commodity.

I once lived next to a building that was strictly little spaces rented out as artists' studios and it had plenty of fun trash. If you live in a large enough area you can probably find a similar deal, and either dive or put up a notice requesting discards. A Freecycle request is probably also a good idea.
posted by kmennie at 11:01 AM on January 4 [2 favorites]

Oh good grief. It's a commodity.

The question of whether art is a commodity or not is an ongoing enquiry which is unlikely to ever be answered conclusively.
posted by hot soup girl at 11:10 AM on January 4

Freecycle and Craigslist wanted section could be very helpful. Also, do you have skills you could barter for art? You might able to swap use of your car, cooking, bike repair, or whatever. Post a flier at a local art school saying that you want to acquire art, and you may get interesting replies.

I don't see any ethical violations, and you might find stuff that would adequately provide color, but I think it's better to choose art, not just grab free crap that some art student didn't value.
posted by theora55 at 11:31 AM on January 4

@ hot soup girl

I think it's pretty safe to say that once it hits the dumpster, it's a commodity.
posted by thekiltedwonder at 11:31 AM on January 4 [1 favorite]

If artist perceives their art as having value, they can attempt to sell it.

The fact that they chose not to sell it and threw it away. If you find value in it, you can either choose to buy it from the artist (if you feel charitable) or take it from the dumpster (if you don't). Either option is ethically equivalent. Personally, I'd choose the former, but not for charitable reasons. I'd choose it solely for convenience.

There is absolutely no logically valid and economically valid argument that art is any different from a discarded bagel. I assert this because there are a significant number of artists that would call a discarded bagel art.
posted by saeculorum at 11:42 AM on January 4 [3 favorites]

I'd just look at the local university's website and email a few folks in the art department. I don't see anything wrong with a professor telling students "If you have any unwanted leftovers at the end of the semester, let me know - someone would like to put it up in their house if it's just going to get thrown out." Nothing wrong with that.
posted by cashman at 11:50 AM on January 4

There is absolutely no logically valid and economically valid argument that art is any different from a discarded bagel

Yes, but art isn't about logic and economics, is it? From the responses here it's clear that there isn't a consensus even among artists as to whether dumpster diving for free art is appropriate. Considering how expensive art supplies can get, offering to buy unwanted projects for cost would make some struggling art student's day. Or week. If it's worth hanging on your wall, you ought to be willing to pay *something* for it.
posted by ambrosia at 11:58 AM on January 4

i don't understand the hate going on here. if for some bizarre reason you try to claim it as your own work, i'd say that was pretty tacky, but salvaging something that someone else saw no value in is not uncommon. take it, display it, and enjoy it.

Same here. As an artist, if I walked into a stranger's house and found something I'd made and discarded hanging on their wall, I'd be honored that they appreciated it enough to dig it out of a dumpster and display it, not insulted or outraged that they didn't pay me for it. But, then, I've never really made any money off my art and only had a couple gallery showings.

So, yeah, provided no one has a serious issue with you in their dumpsters, I don't see any problems with this.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 11:59 AM on January 4 [3 favorites]

The protocol of dumpster-diving in general is: it depends. I live in a college town with a lot of homeless people, so no one bats an eye when they pick stuff out of dumpsters or trash cans. My art GSI himself goes dumpster-diving after the semester is over, when the art department cleans out the place and discards left-behind or unwanted pieces of art. So digging for art in this case is, to me, perfectly fine.

As for the ethics behind this, I assume that if an artist throws away her stuff, then that means she doesn't think there's any artistic value to it. To have someone retrieve it and display it on a wall as a work of art - well, that means someone other than the artist views it as art and appreciates it as such. The artist should be honored ("Hey, it ain't so crappy after all :)").

HOWEVER, for the sake of erring on the side of good, check out end-of-semester sales anyways. Give a little for the poor students.
posted by curagea at 12:39 PM on January 4

[A couple comments removed. We're getting pretty far into derail territory here, maybe step away from the keyboard a bit or take it elsewhere.]
posted by cortex at 2:02 PM on January 4

jayder's completely off-base here. This isn't rocket science: you throw it away, it's worthless to you.

Someone else comes along and sees value in what you've thrown away? Well, that is one beautiful fucking moment, and you have no claim on them, or right to call them tacky.

"The ethical arguments for regular dumpster diving...do not apply to art."

That's the most ridiculous thing I've seen in AskMe so far this year.
posted by mediareport at 2:04 PM on January 4 [6 favorites]

Seriously, dumpster diving for art? Probably not a good idea. As a current art student who goes to an art school, what makes it to the trash doesn't amount to much. Even projects that I'm not happy with will eventually make it home. Personally I think it much better to ask the students by putting up a note on a bulletin board. That way you get the art in a good condition and you're not all sneaking around and jumping into dumpsters. Most schools have pretty high security these days and won't hesitate calling the police if they see people acting suspicious on campus. You'd probably get more replies than you think as well and maybe make some artist friends who would be happy to supply you with unwanted pieces in the future.

Also it's sort of offensive to an artist for you to say you want to "snag" their free art. I know that I put a lot of time into all the things that I work on and I would much rather give away a piece to someone who respects what I do than sell it to someone who doesn't truly appreciate it.
posted by RubyDoom at 2:04 PM on January 4 [1 favorite]

I suspect if they throw away the art, it's probably not so great, or the stuff that's too large and weird to take home (for example, the class that forced me to make a giant wire octopus). I have no idea how you'd even ah, put that kind of thing on your wall. If it's good, they're saving it for a portfolio. Either way, I say dumpster = not wanted, not going to try to make money off it, so you might as well take it.

Or if you want cheap, cheap, CHEAP art, hit a thrift store.

arishawn's story just shocked the hell out of me, though. Who takes shredded art and tapes it on the wall? Do they not realize how tacky-ass that looks? Apparently not, but sheesh.
posted by jenfullmoon at 4:31 PM on January 4

Wait, hold up: if something is in the dumpster that means the owner/artist looked at it, said to him/herself, "I no longer want/need/have room for this and will therefore discard it." How on earth is it wrong to take an unwanted, discarded thing about to go to a landfill and use it in a way that beautifies your surroundings? I do not understand all the freaking out upthread.

If something is shredded or otherwise destroyed prior to disposal, you know that the artist didn't want it to be reused or displayed, so don't use it! If a piece is intact, has been thrown away, and you like it, then go for it. The artist didn't take the time to mark it "do not use"--how is it your responsibility to honor wishes the artist didn't even express (or even, to the best of anyone's knowledge, have)?

I don't meant to knock the suggestion of student art sales, and that's probably the way to get better quality (and cleaner!) artwork, but if someone decides something is trash (and does not shred it or take other steps to prevent its use by another person), it's fair game once it hits the dumpster, whatever it is.
posted by Meg_Murry at 5:24 PM on January 4

I'm an artist - and i say: if it's been thrown away, it's fair game. That said, the crap most students make that ends up in the dumpster isn't worth looking at. I do remember one woman who i went to school with who was always throwing good things away... so you stand a chance.

That said, if you've got a little bit of money, check out coffee shop shows and find artists on flickr or other places that are selling for cheap. I've been buying a lot of art work over the past few years from other artists in Chicago and i've ended up with some really great things for a relatively small investment.

In short, do what you feel!
posted by brandsilence at 5:36 PM on January 4

I lived in an apartment building across the street from the Seattle Art Institute. I never saw someone dump a finished project, but I did find and keep, in our building's trash,

1 pair of skis w/ bindings
1 mini guitar amp/speaker w/ pair of panties stuffed in the back
dozens of books on cooking (AIS has cooking classes)
$400+ worth of foam core boards
posted by nomisxid at 5:45 PM on January 4

hot soup girl writes "Artists ought to have the right to discard or destroy their work, with the expectation that it will not be later stolen. Many artists would feel violated by this theft - not because they were not paid for their labour, but because the were denied the right to control what happens to their work. The ethical arguments for regular dumpster diving (victimless crime, reducing needless waste, quasi-marxist re-distribution of resources) do not apply to art."

What if I dumpster dive for paintings on canvas but just use it to skin my kayak? Paper to feed my compose bin?
posted by Mitheral at 7:16 PM on January 4 [1 favorite]

Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones threw sketches into a dumpster. They ended up in someone's hands who took them to Sotheby's. HE THREW THEM OUT.

In New York City, dumpster diving, and just going through people's trash on trash day is a time-honored tradition. In college I furnished entire apartments with perfectly good cast-offs left on the street (this was in the 80s, pre bed bugs). I'm sorry, what were the ethics there?

If you throw something into the trash, it is not considered your property any more in a court of law, because you've thrown it out.

I personally own lovely stained glass art made by artists in Seattle who dumpster dove for Chihuly glass. There's now a locked grate over the dumpster, but for a while in the 90s a lot of people did it.

This is, however, why I do not throw out manuscripts unshredded.
posted by micawber at 7:29 PM on January 4

How on earth is it wrong to take an unwanted, discarded thing about to go to a landfill and use it in a way that beautifies your surroundings?

As probably the main freaker-out, my main concern was what I perceived as the crappiness of planning to "snag" free art when one isn't willing to pay for it. I am bothered by a mentality that will plan and scheme to "snag" free art, but not respect the artist enough to just buy some damned stuff and support the artist's career. There's a disconnect between valuing what the artist produces enough to try to get it for free and display it on one's wall, on the one hand, and not being willing to pay for it, on the other. But I never said that it's wrong to take it if one happens to run across art in a dumpster.

Maybe my feelings about this are ridiculous, but several people have favorited my comments so it at least seems that I am in good company in having these ridiculous feelings.
posted by jayder at 7:57 PM on January 4

I Nth the end-of-year student art sale. I usually don't find it as cheap as others seem to but I guess that depends on the school, the program, and how its faculty choose to try and professionalize their students. I'm much more interested in purchasing apprentice work that means something to me rather than digging around for "free student art." I don't display anything that doesn't matter to me.
posted by mrmojoflying at 6:37 PM on January 6

Also, Check your library. They might have framed reproductions that you can check out for 3 months or so.
posted by theora55 at 7:29 AM on January 9