Nicole McGee has been vibrant presence in the Cleveland community for years as an advocate for environmental sustainability through upcycling and encouraging waste-free creativity. A decade ago, she opened the Upcycle Parts Shop at St. Clair Avenue and East 65th Street, with a model based on donated craft and art supplies sold super-cheaply. That expanded into offering crafting sessions and make-it-and-take-it parties, and the Upcycle staff continued to have a presence at numerous festivals and community events. Recently, last year it doubled its size, taking over an adjacent storefront and opened its Craft Café where patrons can drop in and make things.
McGee is now moving on and leaving her talented staff to over, with Kaliya Smith taking over as executive director. But she’s simply taking her well-honed talents to another area organization. She posted recently, “In January I began full time work as a fundraising manager at Cleveland Public Library and it’s such an honor to work inside this gem that I have always loved. I get to help bring in new revenue streams to support the library (while we also want to protect existing funding in the state budget!!).” I’m SO GRATEFUL to bring my experience of running nonprofit retail to a new place where we’re trying out a collaborative experiment between the Library and its Foundation to connect new audiences to the Library, feature Library collections AND sell merchandise to support it, while investing in local makers, creatives, and the merchandise of nonprofits to fill our shop.”
She shares that the new merch in the library shop will officially debut on Saturday May 10 from 10:30am-5:30pm. Drop in and see what she’s got going on — and she’s looking for volunteers! Learn more on Instagram @thelibraryshop.cpl.
2 Responses to “NEWS: Upcycle Parts Founder Nicole McGee Takes on a New Job”
Robert O Staib
Congratulations Nicole!!
Darla White
Nicole, Congratulations! as always You Rock!!!