Toledo School for the Arts Hosts Reception for Paper or Plastic Exhibition

Eye On Art  |  05/29/2025 9:30 am

An artist reception for Sarah Thomas’ Paper or Plastic exhibition at Toledo School for the Arts will be held in the Martin D. Porter Gallery in the Community Portal at TSA, 1401 Adams Street, on Friday, May 30 from 6-8 p.m. 

Thomas, an interdisciplinary artist, photographer and curator, is currently an adjunct professor and a photography technician in the photography department at Bowling Green State University. She has also worked in imaging for the National Gallery of Art and curation at the Cranbrook Art Museum.

“Sarah’s work explores the environmental impact of plastic pollution and critiques the limited effectiveness of traditional recycling methods in addressing this global crisis,” stated Max Kachenmeister, TSA portal manager. “I sit at my desk every day and watch discarded plastics and other garbage blow down the street outside the window just feet away from Sarah's work. Many of our exhibits are timed to be seasonally relevant or correspond with an aspect of TSA's curriculum, but I think this is work that's relevant every single day."

According to Thomas, “My lens-based media practice explores the seductive and troubling world of plastics – materials that are at once ephemeral in use and eternal in consequence. Through photography and sculpture, I focus on single-use plastics, found plastic waste and thrifted plastics, examining their vibrant colors, glossy surfaces and transient purposes.”

She continues, “Recycling, an action that seems futile, is also part of this exploration. My works investigate how systems of reuse are mediated through design, commerce and consumer fantasy. I’m interested in the aesthetics of recycling – the didactics, the symbols, the sorting – as much as in its failures.”

Paper or Plastic runs through June 7. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, noon to 6 p.m.

Opened in 1999, Toledo School for the Arts, a public “community” (charter) school, has become known statewide and nationally for offering an outstanding academic and artistic education. The TSA student population has grown from 127 students in grades 7-9 when the school opened to some 750 students in grades 6-12 in the 2024-2025 academic year. Our socio-economically diverse student body hails from approximately 65 different public school districts and private, parochial and community schools, as well as homeschool settings, throughout northwest Ohio.