Founded in 1978, Materials for the Arts (MFTA) is New York City’s largest creative reuse center dedicated to supporting arts and cultural organizations. Since its inclusion of public schools as members in 1998, MFTA is proud to be the largest provider of free materials to the NYC Department of Education. It is no exaggeration to say that millions of students, audience members, choreographers, dancers, actors, set designers, art therapists, after school providers and senior citizens have been positively impacted by the work of Materials for the Arts for almost four decades. 

Today, MFTA's donation cycle diverts over 1.5 million pounds of materials from the landfill each year. These quality goods are redistributed to thousands of nonprofits and public schools across the five boroughs.