Marin residents Michelle Martinez and Crystal Vargas share a longtime friendship and a love of arts and crafts. Vargas, an avid thrifter, has spent years making detailed cards and handmade items, while Martinez, a former ballet dancer who studied dance at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, transitioned into the visual arts and discovered their healing properties.

For years, they discussed starting something meaningful together, and in late 2023 they decided to go for it. They left their jobs in the nonprofit world — Vargas at a Berkeley organization that provides services for those experiencing homelessness, and Martinez as the chief financial officer at the Redwoods in Mill Valley — to start their own nonprofit: a place where they could foster community, connect with others, promote local artists and help keep items out of landfills.

In November, they made that a reality with ARTT — Another Reclaimed Treasure from Trash — opening a storefront in San Rafael that is part secondhand shop and part art venue. They provide workshops on making art from everyday reclaimed objects and offer low-cost donated and reclaimed art supplies as well as other items kept out of garbage dumps.

The store is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays at 1033 C St. Vargas and Martinez also have an online eBay shop. More information is at arttca.org.

Vargas, a Kentfield resident, and Martinez, who lives in Greenbrae, took the time to reflect on their new venture and their passion toward art and the environment.

What inspired you both to take this leap and start ARTT?

Vargas: I was getting burnt out at my job. I was working with the homeless in Berkeley for years. I wanted be closer to home and I wanted to do something that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Martinez: And same for me. I’ve been a chief financial officer for some really large nonprofits: the Bay Area Discovery Museum, the Redwoods and Hospice by the Bay. I really wanted to create a smaller nonprofit where I could have more control over most things and spend my time in a way that was pleasing to me. And bring that opportunity to other people in our community to find out how healing art is. It’s like all the things I’ve done in my life, all the little lessons are being used here.

Vargas: It’s thrilling to open our door every morning and walk in and be like, yeah, we did this. I’m super proud of it.

How’d you become aware of how much goes to the landfill?

Martinez: I started really doing research and I went to the Marin Sanitary Service website, and I started reading some annual reports.

For example, in 2023, 93 tons were sent to the landfill by Marin alone. You can’t escape that. Trying to save our environment, we were proponents of the nonprofit in San Francisco called SCRAP. We kept going there and another place in Berkeley to buy our art supplies. It occurred to us there was nothing like this in Marin.

We curate stuff that can either be repurposed into art during workshops or be sold in the thrift environment for other makers to get their supplies at a low cost.

We work with companies like Changing Places, Settling Seniors and Birch Circle Movers. During our the first week, Changing Places had a huge estate sale and they brought us 140 boxes of art supplies from a person who’d been a teacher for 30 years.

What are some of your favorite donations you’ve gotten?

Vargas: One was from a family of artists from Marin. We had acquired a photo book from the Korean War. The grandfather was in the war.

He was a journalist and he did a newsletter over there. There were pictures of Marilyn Monroe from when she was doing her tour and pictures of him with her. We were getting chills looking through this book.

The other really interesting thing that most people who come here notice is we’ve adopted a family of life-size puppets. We have one actually out in front of the store. We call him Melvin. Kids love to see him.

Martinez: My favorite was when got notified of an estate sale in Novato. We got there and they were literally throwing things in the dumpster and we were pulling them out of the dumpster — amazing works of art. This woman was a master crocheter, master maker of lace, master maker of sweaters. We brought all that back here and have been able to display it, resell it or rehome it to people who will enjoy it.

And it makes me happy because I don’t know this woman, but if I’d spent my life making this stuff, I would much rather think that people were using it and enjoying it than that it went into a big blue dumpster.

Are you two making things you find in the donations?

Martinez: Oh yeah, we’re making stuff all the time. We’re just two people running a complete business from strategy to janitorial services, but we did this and got into this because we wanted to be happier in life and solve some problems for our community. We take breaks and we allow ourselves to just plug in the hot glue gun and play.

I know how healing art has been in my life and we just wanted a little corner of happiness and joy in this tumultuous time we’re living in. If we had to sum up the mission it would be: less landfill, more art, more joy.

Vargas: I joined the board of the Downtown San Rafael Business Improvement District. Eventually, I want to reach out to more nonprofits that also help people that fall into the minority category.

My husband’s from Mexico City, and I’m Puerto Rican. I love folk art and its bright colors and bold lines. I’m hoping to bring some of that into the community. I want everyone in the community to feel welcome to come in. Come look, touch, explore and pick up something that brings you joy.