Art Educators’ Thrift Shopping Practices as Social Action

Abstract

How do artists and art educators who are engaged in regular thrifting view their consumptive practices? In this article, I draw on a small pilot case study and interview data from five artist–educators living in the southwestern United States and examine the motivations and habits of their thrift shopping practices. Findings shared by participants elucidate their conscious decisions to prioritize the purchase of secondhand goods and personal stories linked to the objects. Five themes about thrift shopping habits emerged from the data: (1) linked to personal identity; (2) utilitarian; (3) activism; (4) objects hold meaning; and (5) thrifting promotes feelings and actions related to relaxation and pleasure. Results conclude that artists and art educators view thrift shopping and consumer culture as a personal, interventionist practice that questions social norms. They also recast thrift shopping as a place of collaborative social practice in which participants have the power to individualize consumption.

Acknowledgments

A special thanks to the participants who generously shared their stories, Alison Hulme for initial feedback on this article, and the Studies editors and reviewers. This article is better because of your care.

Disclosure statement

This article has neither been published nor submitted for simultaneous consideration elsewhere.

Notes

¹ The term freecycle started appearing in the early 2000s and was a combination of free and recycle. It is characterized by the actions of people giving and getting material goods for free that would otherwise go into landfills. The Freecycle Network is a nonprofit, worldwide organization (Freecycle.org, 2019).