If you’re a regular reader of my articles, you’ll remember the one I recently wrote on the All Saints District. While doing my research on the area, I stumbled upon this small shop called For What It’s Worth: A Community Exchange, located where there had once been an art studio space. Having done some work around the area for my urban planning classes on the Art Alleys located behind the transformed studio space, I remembered there had been discussion of creating a community exchange to help the homeless population in the area. After further research, I found more information about the “trading post of sorts.” Essentially what For What It’s Worth does is exchange things for a story, picture, performance, or anything artsy, and anyone is able to acquire an item from the exchange. Think of it as a bartering system: you go and perform, and in exchange are “paid” with an item for your performance. The items that are available in the store come from donations. Items that can be found include: clothing, food, hygiene items, and other various knick knacks like crossword puzzle books, sunglasses and many others. Anyone is able to shop at For What It’s Worth, whether you are a pedestrian, homeless, or just someone who visits the Art Alleys often. Donations are accepted each and every day.
When visiting For What It’s Worth, you should also take the time to check out the awesome artwork and graffiti in the Art Alleys, located on the corner of Gaines St. and Railroad Avenue. They provide a nice art-filled walkway for pedestrians in the area (this is the alleyway behind St. Michael’s Pub). The art work and graffiti featured in the Art Alleys is created by Florida State art students under the supervision of art professor Paul Rutovsky. The alleyway behind the Crepevine also has a community garden that features many different types of organic fruits and vegetables – most recently pumpkins for the fall season. Also, every so often there are art performances and concerts held in the Art Alleys. If you ever have the chance, you should definitely check this area out. During First Fridays, it provides a great shortcut to Railroad Square and the various bars in the All Saints area without the fear of walking along the busy streets in the area.
There are many different ways to get involved with the Art Alleys and For What It’s Worth. They are always looking for volunteers to help out in the community gardens with raking, weeding, and harvesting, or with item donations. With the season of giving coming up, what better way to help out your local community than to make a special area of Tallahassee more beautiful than it already is? Either way, you can do this work with the feeling of satisfaction in knowing that you are helping to better the community and help create a special place in here in town.
To learn more about For What It’s Worth, check out this YouTube video: