The mission of UpCycle Creative Reuse Center is to inspire all people to explore and create by engaging our community in art-making experiences with reuse materials. We value originality, inclusivity, and community connections. Our initiatives foster creative expression, experiential learning, resourcefulness, individuality, and fun. UpCycle also endeavors to keep art-making affordable, by making donated materials available to the public at a deep discount and by providing memberships and materials vouchers to schools, teachers, nonprofits and families in need. UpCycle’s classes, workshops and community outreach utilize its reuse collection for unique art and exploratory experiences for people of all ages and abilities.

UpCycle Creative Reuse Center was founded in 2011 by Susan Miranda and Kelley Organek, two teachers with a vision of creating a resource center full of reusable materials that would help foster artistic expression, experiential learning and environmental awareness in their community. In March 2022, UpCycle moved its materials center to its current, larger space on Eisenhower Avenue. In this location, UpCycle has blended its materials center with studio space to significantly expand its ability to serve the community.