At the UArts salvage sale, former students and staff were reunited with their artwork and one another

Inside the packed, sweaty, and colorful Thunderbird Salvage on Saturday morning, it was something of a University of the Arts reunion.

Former students and staff plus other artists lined up on Frankford Avenue in Kensington well before the special sale officially got started. Some came looking for their own artworks that had been sitting inside UArts’ Anderson Hall before Thunderbird claimed them weeks ago. Others were jumping at the opportunity to snag discounted supplies, or a new conversation piece for home.

This opening day of the multiday event prioritized former UArts students, staff, teachers, and alumni who might not have gotten the chance to move out their artwork and other items when the school suddenly closed last year. Thunderbird, a salvage and thrift business, had saved truckloads of art and equipment and said that people who could demonstrate that something belonged to them could have it for free. Everything else was offered at a heavy discount for teachers and students.

Past Thunderbird’s doors were shelves full of brushes, ink stamps, saws, hammers, caulking guns, and books of all kinds. An overflow area outside held tables and bins loaded with hundreds of drawings, paintings, and prints waiting to be claimed and displayed.

People carried their finds on top of cutting boards and held monitors under their arms, walking past an onlooking multicolored painted skull, mannequins, and a giant molded bone fit for clubbing.

» READ MORE: Many students had to abandon their artwork when UArts closed. Thunderbird Salvage is trying to reunite them

“I feel tired, overwhelmed, and very happy with the turnout,” said George Mathes, owner of Thunderbird Salvage. In an Instagram post promoting the sale, Thunderbird wrote that it was not looking to profit off the pop-up, only to cover labor costs. Mathes said the sale was fully about supporting the former UArts staff and students, and artists in general.

“I’m relieved that people care about this stuff,” he said.

When Maria Kortz, 23, heard the news that UArts would be shuttered before her senior year, she said, it felt like a prank.

“Do I even continue [with] my education at this point?” she said she wondered. Kortz had been an illustration major, and didn’t get a chance to take all her things home before the school closed.

In the chaos, she ended up transferring to Temple University, where she graduated this spring. Kortz was reunited with some former classmates and staff at the sale Saturday, and appreciated they could finally take home some physical reminders of their school.

“It’s sad, but I’m glad we get this one last chance to get the stuff we used all the time,” she said. Her biggest get was a large printing screen that can be used to make T-shirts or posters, and at a much cheaper price than she would normally see.

“This is the biggest congregation of UArts I’ve probably seen” since the school closed, said Ben Feuerstein, 20. While he was a guitar performance major at UArts and is still studying music now at Drexel University, Feuerstein said, he came by the sale to check out what had been left behind and to grab some things for friends.

“Maybe pick something up for myself,” he said.

The discounted items also brought other arts students with no connection to UArts. Shelby Jimenez, 21, was set on coming away with an easel ever since she heard about the sale, and found a sturdy blue one to load into her friend’s truck.

She just graduated from Temple, where she was an art education major and focused on oil paintings and ceramics. Jimenez works at a preschool for now, and said she has been nervous about pursuing her art as a full-time endeavor.

“But I really want to at least try to be an artist and keep practicing,” she said.

“You can’t not get supplies,” said Sam Irvin, 22, a student at Moore College of Art and Design who works on digital illustration and acrylics. Irvin saw the sale promoted on Instagram and knew he had to stop by. He came away with a cutting board, an ink stamp, a “safety first” sign, and a pencil case with Barack Obama’s face that was shaped like a toothpaste tube.

For any thrift-minded Philadelphians who may have missed Saturday’s pop-up, more items will be available for sale Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and next weekend. More information can be found on Thunderbird’s Instagram page.