re–

reharvest repair  exhibition
Location
Boghossian Gallery
Providence Public Library
Providence, RI, USA

Opening Reception
October 17, 2026
on International Repair Day

Exhibition runs from
October 17 – December 01, 2026



CALL FOR WORK
Call Opening
July 30, 2026

Submission Deadline
August 30, 2026

 “Re-harvesting” challenges the traditional notion of waste as something useless or undesirable. It prompts us to see waste not as an end but as a beginning.

 The reharvest repair exhibition seeks work that engages the afterlife of materials, especially those connected to the regions industrial, domestic, ecological, or community-based material streams. We are interested in projects that do not simply reuse waste, but rethink the values and conditions that made something “waste” in the first place.



ABOUT
reharvest repair invites artists, designers, makers, repairers, hackers, scavengers, and re-makers to submit work for a curated exhibition exploring acts of re-harvesting and repair as creative, social, and ecological practices. We live amid cycles of extraction, overproduction, and obsolescence. Yet within the cast-offs of industry, the remnants of consumption, and the objects marked by wear, rupture, or neglect, there remains an abundance of material and imaginative potential. reharvest repair asks how discarded objects, scraps, off-cuts, leftovers, and residual materials might be transformed into new works, tools, propositions, and objects that provoke new ways of thinking about waste, repair, and value.

reharvest repair resists the notion of repair as mere restoration to an original state. Instead, it advances repair as an act of reconfiguration and transformation, cultivating renewed relationships among people, materials, place, and value. Repair is understood here not only as fixing, but as remaking, re-pairing, revaluing, and reimagining.



THEMES
Submitted work should be able to speak to one or more of the following themes

NOTE The exhibition will function as a local archive of material afterlives; a public collection of objects and practices that reveal how re-harvesting and repair can generate alternative futures from the fragments of the present.
 re-harvesting discarded, residual, or overlooked materials 

repair as care, resistance, transformation, or imagination 

the creative reuse of scraps, off-cuts, broken objects, or industrial leftovers 

circular material practices and alternatives to extraction 

visible mending, reconfiguration, assemblage, grafting, patching, or adaptation 

community-based making, repair cultures, and local material knowledge 

the transformation of waste into material, aesthetic, social, or ecological value

work shop proposals (that can be held in the gallery or in the PPL makerspace)

ELIGIBLE WORK
 physical objects
artworks
tools
prototypes
material experiments
repaired objects
sculptural works
design objects
speculative artifacts
processed-based work
                           

digital-only work is not eligible as a stand-alone submission. Short videos documenting processes, repairs, or material transformations may be considered for inclusion in a shared projection.


CURATION, TEAM

Selection of artworks will be based on the criteria of the call, and size restrictions.

Head Curators
 Ayako Maruyama, Markus Berger

Assistant Curator
TBD

Graphic Design
Clara Cayosa



SUBMISSIONPlease submit your artwork/s via Google Form

For more information, contact head curators Ayako and Markus at reharvest-repair@risd.edu



KEY DATESSubmission deadline
August 31, 2026

Notification
September 15, 2026

Artwork delivery deadline
October 9, 10-11am & 4-5pm
October 10, 10am-4pm

Installation
October 13-15

Exhibition opening
October 17, 1-3 pm

Exhibition closing
December 01, 2026

Artwork pickup deadline
December 02 11am-1pm & 5pm-6pm



By re-harvesting waste, or more precisely, by reclaiming residual materials, we can significantly reduce or even eliminate the need for freshly extracted resources in architecture and design. When we shift our architectural and design thinking towards alternative methods rather than relying on conventional construction materials, we open up opportunities to utilize different material waste streams. These residual materials, often deemed unnecessary, can be repurposed either in their original function or given a completely new use.

reharvest repair is a circular economy research project supported by the RISD Somerson Sustainability Innovation Fund and has two connected components:


re-harvesting
to build networks with the RI Industries and document the material discard flows that can be utilizedre-pair
the reimagination and transformation of these resources with and along community partners, institutional partners, students, and communities at large through community engagement


reharvest repair
a circular economy research project


Rhode Island School of Design
20 Washington Place
Providence 02906
USA