Please Don't Touch Me

They probably don't know it, but I've always felt a special kinship with that nomadic tribe of refuse re-users known as the Dumpster Divers.

As someone who throws away very little, and whose desk has been compared to an installation piece, I have always been amazed by what people choose to discard. A fascination that shows up every so often in these pages, most notably in reporter Ed Engle rooting through the garbage of the powerful and notorious—ex-mob chieftain John Stanfa and current Philly chieftain Ed Rendell among them.

So when freelancer Deborah Scoblionkov approached me in May for a story about a new space dedicated to the reuse of refuse, to be called the Please Take Museum (PTM), I was hooked.

A barter house for found wonders, the Please Take Museum was created by the Divers and a non-profit arts and environmental organization called CARP, short for Creative Artists' Resource Project.

The goal, according to organizers, was to create a place where art-minded trashpickers could foster both art and environmentalism by taking garbage out of the waste stream and storing it in a place where someone will be inspired enough to make a lamp or a sculpture or some other fabulous object d'art.

All housed, appropriately enough, in the former Larami Toys space in the Wolf Building at 340 N. 12th Street.

"We know it's not a real museum with rare and unusual things," Dumpster Diver and PTM manager Miss Jenna Dohrmann told Scoblionkov. "These are found objects from the trash that may inspire artists."

The PTM, according to CARP founder cdavid hall-cottrill, derived its name from the same playful spirit that led the creators of the Please Touch Museum to so name Philly's children's museum.

"We were playing on the same irony," hall-cottrill said the other day. "Normally, you don't go to a museum to touch things. You don't go to a museum to take things, either. It was the same play on words."

In June, the people who run the Please Touch Museum issued a cease and desist order against the PTM after reading Scoblionkov's piece.

In essence, the Please Touch Museum was claiming that the Please Take Museum would cause financial harm by confusing people.

As if the people of Philadelphia and those who choose to visit can't figure out the difference between touching and taking without help from a flotilla of lawyers.

Initially, the PTMers were stunned by the not-so-friendly letter from the Please Touch lawyers, which left them feeling quite bullied by a larger and more well-established cultural institution.

"It was a shock, a real shock," said hall-cottrill. "Our mission is to build a sustainable arts community."

After receiving the letter, hall-cottrill contacted its author, attorney Mark Hershey, to appeal to reason.

A longshot, considering that the museum is so concerned about guarding its name that it once sent out a similar order to a West Coast art exhibit called Please Touch.

"I contacted their lawyer, who spouted legalese at me and told me that they had the right to protect their trademark," said hall-cottrill. "I assured him that there was no conflict here, these are two different names. I told him I couldn't understand what the big fuss was all about. Furthermore, I pointed out that our non-profit was set up to help organizations like the Please Touch by creating a flow of resources."

Hershey, apparently, was untouched by hall-cottrill's argument and told him to contact the Please Touch house counsel Laura Campbell.

Whose word we will have to take, because Hershey said he can't talk about the issue and Campbell dodged several calls seeking comment.

"She said the bottom line is you have to change your name," said hall-cottrill. "I told her that the arts community is not real happy about big bullies coming in and beating up on grass roots organizations. It didn't matter that we were not really a museum, but a materials exchange."

"Because we were dealing with the grand opening, we came up with a compromise," said hall-cottrill.

The PTM is now called the Please Take M.E., the initials standing for "materials exchange."

"Dropping the museum [from the PTM name] was an acceptable compromise," said hall-cottrill, who was quick to point out that, while "more than a little annoyed" at the whole thing, he has no interest in re-opening old wounds.

Gearing up for a Fringe-related auction on Sept. 7, hall-cottrill said that many divers and other artists just wanted to forget the whole thing and move on.

While I feel for the Please Touch and would be equally upset if another columnist wrote similar drivel under the name Pretzel Babble or Bialy Logic, I am confident that my drivel and babble would stand out.

Besides, it always touches a nerve with me when the 800-pound gorilla wannabes thump their chests in a display of territorial dominance.

So despite the PTMers' reluctance to talk, I just thought you might want to hear their story.

Because it's hard enough trying to build up self-sustaining arts organizations in this town.

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Please Don't Touch Me

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