Workshop | Laying Waste: Trash Collage for More-than-Human Devotion

Description: September 9, 2025–April 11, 2026

American artist Robert Rauschenberg (1925–2008) found meaning and purpose in discarded materials, utilizing shipping boxes, agricultural feed bags, and other detritus to investigate networks of industrialization and waste. This workshop invites participants to play with Rauschenberg’s method of reclaiming garbage as objects of devotion.

Led by Emma Bautista (visual artist and researcher), Gal Nissim (interdisciplinary artist and adjunct professor), and Becca Franks (animal welfare scientist and assistant professor) from NYU’s Department of Environmental Studies, the workshop will deploy humor and celebration to “lay waste” to harmful paradigms of consumption. Participants will have the opportunity to reflect on the sources and supply chains from which their materials derive, as well as trace their webs of entanglement with the natural world as an attentional practice to cultivate respect, awe, and hope.

Bring your own trash to repurpose (such as used packaging), or use materials provided onsite!

Come early to see Handle with Care: Robert Rauschenberg’s Ecological Conscience— the exhibition will be on view from 11am to 6pm on October 7.

Light refreshments will be served.

Date: October 7, 2025

Location: Grey Art Museum, NYU (20 Cooper Square, Room 101

Time: 6:00 - 7:30

Duration: 1 hour, 30 minutes

NYU’s Grey Art Museum provides reasonable accommodations to people with disabilities. Requests for accommodations should be submitted at least two weeks in advance. Please email [email protected] or call (212) 998-6780 for assistance.

Co-organized by the Department of Environmental Studies, NYU; co-sponsored by the All Animals Initiative.

Handle with Care: Robert Rauschenberg’s Ecological Conscience is organized by the Grey Art Museum, New York University, with support from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. This exhibition is part of a global slate of initiatives celebrating the artist’s 100th birthday.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

20 Cooper Sq room 101, 20 Cooper Square, New York, United States