![\"rarehare\"](\"https:\/\/sduptownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/rarehare.jpg\" "\\"rarehare\\"")
<\/a> Erin Pennell is teaching her students a unique, valuable lesson: Your trash can be made into your treasure.<\/p>\nPennell owns and runs the Rare Hare Studio on Adams Avenue in Normal Heights, providing art classes to children and adults. But the Rare Hare isn\u2019t your average arts and crafts workroom. Pennell is an art teacher who brings recycling to a whole new level.<\/p>\n
The Rare Hare offers classes that turn recycled everyday items into pieces of art. Pennell hopes to spread awareness of \u201creclaimed art\u201d \u2013 the art of taking used objects and giving them a new use.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour vision is turned on in a new way,\u201d Pennell said. \u201cWhat was your boring recycling bin becomes your box full of treasures.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pennell opened the Rare Hare Studio in February 2008, after spending seven years living in San Francisco. She became inspired by the liberal city\u2019s recycling arts programs. A San Diego native, she brought San Francisco\u2019s ecologically-friendly mindset back home with her.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are recycling arts programs in every major city in the U.S. except for San Diego, so I want to pioneer recycling arts programs in San Diego,\u201d Pennell said.<\/p>\n
Her studio, modestly cluttered with chairs, projects, scraps and used knickknacks, looks like a living room out of an \u201cI Spy\u201d book. With the stacks of random items and Pennell\u2019s persistent push for creativity, the students have no problems producing art.<\/p>\n
Through a recycled art project called F.A.I.R. (fostering artistic ingenuity with recycling), her students\u2019 reclaimed art pieces have been displayed in local festivals and art walks. On Sept. 11, children\u2019s\u2019 mini-rooms (miniature versions of rooms decorated inside of shoe boxes) were displayed at the Kensington Walkabout. At last weekend\u2019s ArtWalk on the Bay, children were able to participate in making reclaimed art at Erin\u2019s booth.<\/p>\n
Next weekend at the Adams Avenue Street Fair, businesses will be open for viewing and Pennell won\u2019t miss this opportunity to draw more clientele. She said she will have her store open for viewing, a list of her fall classes so people can sign up and a small trunk show, which will have art and unique objects for sale.<\/p>\n
Along with the F.A.I.R. program, the studio holds art camps during school breaks, teacher workshops and traditional art classes, such as watercolor painting, drawing and photography. The studio can also be reserved for birthday parties or get-togethers.<\/p>\n
Noreen Clindinning of Clairemont has been taking classes at the studio with her 11-year-old daughter since it opened. She said she loves being at the studio because of its relaxing, calming and soothing atmosphere.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just a place you can go where you can tune out everything else in your life and work on something specific and really let your creative side come out,\u201d Clindinning said. \u201c[Pennell] has so much stuff and it\u2019s so well organized and laid out \u2013 I feel like all the tedious prep work is done for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pennell said that despite these trying times for many small businesses, she has abundant business.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith so many art programs being cut from schools, parents are looking for alternative sources of enrichment for their children,\u201d she said. Pennell feels that art is as imperative to a child\u2019s education as language arts and history. \u201cI think taking art out of children\u2019s lives in school is a great disservice to them and society,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Clindinning said she felt it was important to put her daughter in art classes. \u201cIt\u2019s more than doing the projects \u2013 [Pennell is] really teaching,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd she\u2019s giving [the children] a lot of background, and talking about professional artists and the history of art.\u201d<\/p>\n
To Pennell, art is more than her job \u2013 it\u2019s a way of life.<\/p>\n
\u201cKids making that connection between the recycled forms and art is only going to help them, our community, our environment and our world in the future,\u201d Pennell said.<\/p>\n
With her adult art classes, she emphasizes the need for people of all ages to use their imaginations. \u201cGrown-ups need a chance to explore their creative process,\u201d she said. \u201cAdults don\u2019t always give themselves permission to engage in something fun and creative.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Rare Hare financially supported by donations of money and used goods. Pennell\u2019s studio is densely packed, floor to ceiling, with objects that would normally go into the trash or recycling cans. She said every home and business has clean, reusable scraps that can be donated. \u201cI\u2019m clearing the clutter from everyone\u2019s lives and turning it into art,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Amid Pennell\u2019s busy schedule with the Rare Hare, she has bigger plans. She said her goal is to obtain non-profit status and get grants so she can open a F.A.I.R. storefront, where teachers, families and artists can donate items or buy items for low prices.<\/p>\n
-You can call or e-mail Erin Pennell to donate clean, used scraps and objects. For more information about the studio, go to: www.Rareharestudio.com.<\/p>\n
Amanda Strouse is a freelance journalist who lives in San Diego.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Recycled treasures offer a new type of art By: Amanda Strouse Erin Pennell is teaching her students a unique, valuable lesson: Your trash can be made into your treasure. Pennell owns and runs the Rare Hare Studio on Adams Avenue in Normal Heights, providing art classes to children and adults. But the Rare Hare isn\u2019t […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":242923,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Rare Hare: Uptown Children Learn Art of Recycling","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-242922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}