Riverside Arts Center is hosting their second annual Anything But… exhibition, this year focusing on Anything But… New Materials.
Anything But… is an annual exhibition that Riverside hosts with the purpose of challenging artists to think outside of the boxes and usual materials they work with. Anything But… has a different theme each year, with each theme excluding a traditional element of gallery art.
"We wanted a show that would allow us to have something that wasn’t as traditional in the gallery space," said Maggie Spencer, the center's operations manager. "We wanted to do a series that would exclude a material or a theme, or something that seemed very traditionally fine art."
The Anything But… New Materials exhibition will feature art pieces composed of 75% or more recycled, reused or repurposed materials. The goal of this show is to help push artists beyond their boundaries and expand what art can be, what art looks like and what can come of it.
The exhibition will be in the Riverside Arts Center at 76 N. Huron St. It will be up Dec. 5, 2025, through Jan. 9, 2026, during regular gallery hours, which are Fridays 2-6 p.m., Saturdays 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and by appointment Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
In contrast to previous galleries, which typically displayed a great deal of 2D art, the exhibition this year will feature a variety of sculpture work. Visitors will also see many different paintings and 2D pieces made from either repurposed canvas, upcycled paint or different reused materials. Fiber arts and prints will be part of the exhibition as well.
Last year was Riverside's first time doing the Anything But… exhibition. The theme was Anything But… Canvas. They received a great deal of of prints and fiber arts, as well as paintings on wood boards and other materials.
Spencer said one of the biggest challenges the team faced when planning this show was setting a defining line for what pieces used enough reused materials and which had too many new materials. They set the line at 75% reused materials but found themselves making exceptions for things that did not quite fit within the boundary.
"I think last year, the response we got was very encouraging," Spencer said. "And the same for this year — we got a lot of people that were really excited about the themes and having to navigate it a little differently with their art practices."
