Making and Unmaking Collections through Gift Exchange

The Buy Nothing Project and Communities of Care

Authors

• Sue Uhlig The Pennsylvania State University

DOI: https://doi.org/10.54916/rae.119491

Keywords:

gift economy, community care, collections, collaborative exhibition, Wunderkammer

Abstract

In this visual essay, I argue that the gift economy generated through the Buy Nothing Project is a form of community care. Specifically, I will discuss how members in the Buy Nothing Project helped to make and unmake a research-creation exhibition in a university project space through their commitment to community building. Founded in the US, the Buy Nothing Project is a global network of thousands of hyper-local community groups that eschew a trational cash economy and instead advocate collaboration, community, sustainability, and creativity through a gift economy. The generous gifting from my local group enabled the making of my research exhibition through the contributions of bookcases, tables, ephemera, and small boxes. Several of the Buy Nothing Project members also became participants in the research, and they lingered in the space during the exhibition and related events. On the concluding day during its unmaking, objects and furniture in the research exhibition were gifted back to Buy Nothing members to deepen the connection of community care.