The founders of the Prague-based art reuse center believe that it is not human nature to throw away useful things. The center was created as a response to the huge amount of material that is left over after art installations, exhibitions, film production, etc. Boards, display cases, fabrics, wool, carpets and linoleum used to end up in landfills. But since the art reuse center in Žižkov was founded, more than 230 tons of material have been salvaged and given new life in other art projects.
At one point, there was so much incoming material that the center almost had to stop taking in donated materials. Via Foundation supported the art re use center in expanding its capacity. “Thanks to support from Via Foundation, with funding from JRD, and our fundraising drive on Darujme.cz, we were able to increase our warehouse capacity and in the end we didn’t have to turn away any donations,” said art re use founder Jan Vincenec.
Jan explained the origins of the art re use center: “The idea of sharing material came from the bottom up, from gallerists, curators and artists who organize exhibitions”. The question of how to stop the vicious circle of wasting material in the art world was a concern both for small galleries without warehouses, and for large institutions that often make such extensive exhibitions that they would have to rent an entire new warehouse to store the material afterwards. “There was an obvious paradox: to operate continuously, you have to constantly dispose of material from completed projects so that you can install new projects in a limited space. You throw away things that you will need again in six months, because storing them would cost you more than purchasing new ones,” explained Jan Vincenec.
The Skutek association has been working on upcycling in art since 2013, but the real change came in 2021, when art re use acquired an abandoned car repair shop from the Prague 3 Municipal District. “We finally opened a central warehouse that could be a hub for excess material,” said Jan. This is still the only place in the entire EU where you can donate or obtain material for new art projects for free. You can find similar initiatives in New York, where the city runs Materials for the Arts, or in Leeds in the UK, which has the Scrap Center of Creative Reuse.
All donated material is sent on within 2 weeks
The art re use warehouse is just over 270 square meters in size, but it can handle over a hundred tons of material a per year. How is that possible? “We have an e-shop where we accept donations and orders for a range of materials around the clock. We work with over 500 cultural institutions. Since we have such a wide portfolio, we can deliver all the donated materials with a one- or at most two-week turnaround,” said Jan.
Even though the process is very efficient, someone still has to pick up each item, hand it over and load it into a car. The warehouse is staffed by art school students who take turns working in short shifts. Thanks to hundreds of users, the center can now distribute materials remotely, directly from the places where there is a surplus. “We are looking for partners across the country. In late 2025, we established our first branch outside Prague, in České Budějovice. It was created in cooperation with the organization in charge of the European Capital of Culture 2028 initiative, and it could be a way to transfer the art re use model to other European regions in the future,” Jan went on.
All salvaged material is sent on by art re use free of charge. “We only donate it to pre-verified users from cultural institutions, and therefore we carefully document where the material goes, to whom, for its next creative life,” added Jan.
Growing interest, limited capacity: A fundraising drive on Darujme.cz
The art re use project publishes data on the quantity of salvaged material and lists of users on its website every three months. “From the statistics, it is clear that interest in our service is growing. From the opening of the warehouse in 2021 until the end of 2024, we salvaged and handed out a total of 132 tons of material. In 2025 alone, it was 103 tons,” said Jan.
It became clear that with the number of users steadily increasing, the current capacity of the warehouse’s service would not be enough. The art re use center decided to apply for a grant from Via’s Sustainable Life Fund program, funded by JRD. As part of the support, Via Foundation gave art re use the opportunity to set up a fundraising drive on its Darujme.cz portal, with 1:1 matching by JRD up to CZK 100,000.
The art re use project fundraising drive brought in 116% of the target funding. Jan Vincenec explained that the drive’s success rests on donors who are users of art re use’s services. “It is a beautiful example of engagement and and self-help in the cultural industry. The donors were organizations and artists who do not have enough resources for their own activities, but they understand that in order to maintain the service, we all need to work together. We operate a project that results in hundreds of thousands of material investments directly into culture, with minimal costs and through the dedication of students and volunteers, and we greatly appreciate that the cultural industry has taken art re use as its own and is contributing to its maintenance in this way,” said Jan.
All proceeds from the grant and fundraising drive from the Sustainable Life Fund went directly to operating the warehouse and distributing the material. “We would have had to start turning down new donations, but through the grant and drive, we were able to add one full half-time employee, so we didn’t have to turn away any material donations,” concluded Jan Vincenec.
Materials go to art schools and children from disadvantaged areas
Although the art re use center is considering the possibility of charging for the service so that it can develop stably, it has not yet taken this step. “We take into account our target users, who are mainly art school students and people in disadvantaged areas,” said Jan, giving two recent examples.
The art re use center worked with the association Pojď ven!/ Av. Avri, which works with children from disadvantaged neighborhoods, specifically in the Janov housing estate in Litvínov. Thanks to the donation of costumes from Peris costumes, they created a theater performance with a circus theme with the children. The project was accompanied by the publication of a book by Bára Bažantová called Jinotaj with illustrations by Anna Kulíčková.
In Bakov nad Jizerou, the town hall reconstructed the cultural center hall. They also replaced the seats and had nowhere to store the old seats. Several rows were given to local handball players, but thanks to art re use, a new owner was found for the remaining 175 seats. They are currently on their way to Karlín Barracks, where the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague (UMPRUM) is establishing its own cinema. “And that is the point of our service. Local government was able to support the academy of arts through this donation and the value, which, according to bazaar prices for these seats, can range from CZK 100 to 500,000, is a direct investment in supporting specific art initiatives and general cultural life for the public,” concluded Jan Vincenec.
