Shannon Stott and Cate Wurster spearheaded the ROTA Gallery’s Winter Really, Really Free Market, which is scheduled for Jan. 31. Items can be dropped off at the downtown location ahead of the daylong clothing and skills swap.
PLATTSBURGH — With a chill in the air, Cate Wurster tore through her closet and marveled at the items she no longer needed:
Coats, parkas, gloves — knitted winter hats with snowflake patterns.
“Man, these are a lot of really nice coats,” Wurster recalled.
ROTA Gallery, the downtown art studio and performance space, had hosted clothing markets before, but never in the winter, when the need is greater.
“A lot of our friends don’t have proper winter coats,” said Wurster, the venue’s music coordinator.
And so the idea of the “Winter Really, Really Free Market” was born. Residents are encouraged to drop their usable items off at the Bridge Street location, where items will ideally find new homes.
Normally used as a performance space for local and visiting musicians — the community-run venue will host a lineup of experimental rock artists this weekend — Wurster said the swap presents an ideal opportunity to open the all-ages venue for other uses.
Attendees are also swap their skills — be they babysitting, cooking or general fix-it work — as part of a barter exchange.
Wurster, for instance, has a knack for doing seamstress work.
It’s all part of the emerging barter economy.
The market is part of a broader effort to promote ROTA’s services to the community.
The volunteer-run center promotes a do-it-yourself ethic. One of their main goals, said Wurster, is to utilize recycled resources and volunteer time to develop a vibrant community.
For twenty-somethings who haven’t been involved in traditional volunteer efforts, the market is a way to get involved, stay busy, give back and, perhaps more importantly, get rid of unwanted stuff.
“We’re all here together,” Wurster said.
The Winter Really, Really Free Market: Jan. 31, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Donations for usable items are currently being accepted during open gallery hours. For more info, or to organize a special drop-off time, find ROTA on Facebook or at [email protected]. Monetary donations to support the studio’s continuation are also welcome.
