About the ‘Vape TY Deposit Box’ on 6th Street

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy 

If you’ve walked past 431 E. Sixth St. lately between Avenue A and First Avenue, you may have noticed a small "Vape TY Deposit Box" mounted outside the building. 

It's part of an ongoing project by Laura Tighe, who runs Smilers, the gallery that opened in No. 431 earlier this year. 

Tighe has been quietly collecting empty vape cartridges from neighbors and passersby; the box is available 24/7 for drop-offs.

The cartridges will eventually make their way into a long-term installation Tighe is developing upstairs: The New York Vape Room, a rooftop, greenhouse-like structure built around the city’s discarded vape culture.

So if you've ever wondered who’s gathering those spent cartridges on Sixth Street, it's an artist at work.

A week left for 'Before the Clean-Up' at new East Village gallery Smilers

Flyer via @smilersnyc 

You have a week left to catch the latest exhibit at Smilers, a small basement gallery that debuted in Janaury on Sixth Street. 

"Before the Clean-Up" features photography by Nick Waplington and Lizzi Bougatsos as they documented the 1990s NYC underground club scene...

The show, which opened on March 6, runs through next Saturday. Hours: noon to 6 p.m., Thursday to Saturday. The gallery, launched by Mark Beasley and Laura Tighe, is at 431 E. Sixth St. between Avenue A and First Avenue. (The address was also home to William Wegman's studio.) 

Also: Our old EVG friend James Maher has launched a new video series about photography books and shows in conjunction with Miwa Susuda of Dashwood Books and Session Press. His first interview is with Nick Waplington. Watch that here.