Reuse and Repurpose

My workshop is located in a building that is part of the Northeast Minneapolis Arts Association. Each spring, NEMAA hosts an open studio art tour known as Art-A-Whirl. The largest concentration of activity is found at the Northrup King Building. It struck me during an Art-A-Whirl at the Northrup King Building how many artists reuse old material in their new work. That led me to reflect on the first organ I built as an independent pipe organ builder.

The organ came about when I was asked if I would be interested in what was left of an early twentieth-century pipe organ that was removed from a church in northern Illinois and stored in a basement. What I found worthwhile in that material was three sets of pipes that could be used to make a late-baroque cabinet organ if revoiced and added to by new pipe ranks that would provide the new organ with a complete and well-rounded set of tonal resources.

I set about designing a one-manual mechanical action cabinet organ built around a specification that included the three older sets of pipes along with two new sets that completed a unified tonal plenum based on the late baroque style common to southern German organ building of that period. The new organ design included a new slider windchest, new wind supply, new casework of solid walnut, and a new mechanical action to directly connect each key to its corresponding pipe valve, all produced by me in my workshop.

I contracted out the keyboard and metal pipes to respective firms, who did work in reproducing early organ material to stay true to the historical nature of the instrument. Carvings were done by a local artisan whose regular business was furniture refinishing.

I would not have built an organ using older material had it not been available for free. However, organs have been built this way for centuries. Obviously, though, many artisans use older artifacts in their work, basing much of it on the principle of reuse and repurposing.

Posted August 4, 2025 19:49