A group of Oakland volunteers is turning Lake Merritt litter into art – and a whole lot of joy.
After years of picking up trash around the lake, the so-called Trash Falcons are turning their findings into art and creating a trash museum at the Junior Center of Art and Science.
The museum features roughly 175 of the most questionably historic finds from in and around the lake.
“It’s so easy to get frustrated by people who throw away plastic forks, plastic flossers for your teeth,” Trash Falcons artist Anne McSilver said. “We find so much. But Trash Falcons has taught me to look for the treasure in the trash, and we call it radical optimism.”
The group’s treasure hunt started five years ago during the pandemic.
“City workers responsible for waste management were on furlough, wildfires that summer, pandemic was raging,” Trash Falcons co-founder Richard Shirk said. “It was really terrible. We decided someone should do something about that, and we are someone.”
Now more than 100 volunteers meet every Sunday — rain or shine — removing an average of 15.6 tons of trash a year.
“It’s so worth it – the joy that we find in being part of our community and having a real measurable impact,” Shirk said.
Most of what they collect is recycled, but the pieces that make them pause get a second life.
“We are all trying to clean up Lake Merritt, which is Oakland’s jewel,” Trash Falcons Chief Curator Rachel Beth Egenhoefer said. “I would hope they would see the fun, the creativity, the quirkiness; start to question the objects that we keep, that we toss.”
The museum runs through March 6, and the art exhibit will be available until April.