Editor’s note: This is part of The Know’s series, Staff Favorites. Each week, we offer our opinions on the best that Colorado has to offer for dining, shopping, entertainment, outdoor activities and more. (We’ll also let you in on some hidden gems.)
When I was a boy, my sister and I used to beg my mom to buy us new art and classroom supplies before each school year.
New college-ruled notebooks, cartons of pens and pencils, crayons and markers. We would grab it all. Then, at the end of each school year, my mom would pack up what we didn’t use and stick it in the garage. It tended to be most of the supplies we had asked for before classes started.
What was our obsession with new? Nowadays, I’m aware that there are closets and drawers across America full of not just school supplies, but also arts and crafts supplies of all kinds. Skeins of yarn, yards of fabric, rubber stamps, blank canvases, vintage postcards, old magazines, paints, pastels and pipe cleaners.
All of these supplies and much more can also be found at ReCreative Denver, a used arts-and-crafts store and nonprofit located at 765 Santa Fe Drive. They fill enough shelves, cubbies and containers to occupy two spacious halls, plus to sustain artist studios upstairs. Strolling along the Art District on Santa Fe and into this trove of inspiration for the first time last year poked a creative urge that has kept me coming back for more.
“It seems big, but we get inundated with stuff,” said Chris Scott, ReCreative’s director of operations and one of three original founders. He credits the idea to co-founder Emily Korson, who opened a ReCreative workshop in Seattle before moving to Denver and opening in art district in 2016.
ReCreative relies on volunteers to sort through the mountains of goods that come in by appointment each month. Employees or specialists will usually price items at half their retail cost or less, Scott said, though prices have increased somewhat along with the building rent. Individual balls of yarn can be found for $2. Inks for screen printing range from $3 to $5. Singular items and handcrafted goods are priced accordingly and displayed by the entrance. (An unopened kit of pastels, for instance, is $45.)
Another main draw is the workshops and classes scheduled by program manager Kelly Eigenberger in the rooms further inside the building. Casual knitting, sewing, assemblage and crafting clubs meet every month.
Having moved within walking distance, the store is now a regular destination for me. It’s a little silly at this point, as my wife and I have stocked up on enough art supplies to arm a kindergarten class. I like to scrutinize the supply drawers like I do the shelves at record stores, proud and a little overwhelmed that such a bounty of resources exists near me.
Others have also caught on over the years, Scott said. A fundraiser last month raised thousands, and soon the shop will reopen its mezzanine as a gallery. Its first exhibition will be on Feb. 7 for the district’s First Fridays showcase.
“To see it become this sort of home base [or] nexus for people living the art life is very thrilling to me,” Scott said. “Because that’s a hard life to live. If we can make it a little easier … that’s pretty wonderful.”
At the foot of the staircase that leads to the mezzanine and artist studios is a large community message board. On one side is a prompt: “What does ReCreative mean to you?”
Dozens of answers are written on sticky notes tacked on to the wall:
“An inspirational destination,” reads one note. “The opportunity to try … then try again,” reads another, followed by a smiley face. One is a phrase I’ve used to refer to something that brought me comfort: “Reminds me of my mom!”
One note sticks with me most of all. “I can afford to make art now!!!” it says in sloppy handwriting, the last two words underlined for even more emphasis.
This store should not be such a revelation in a world where material goods continue to accumulate, much of them never used and even more ending up as pure waste. ReCreative stands out not just for recognizing this but also for keeping prices low in a way that actually makes art affordable and accessible for all.
ReCreative helped reawaken my long-dormant creativity, which I promise to you is inherent in all of us. Let the hall of art supplies runneth over.
