Collage Collaborative

Meet the Artist: Patricia Anderson

Artist Patricia Savanick Anderson, COTA, has facilitated a public art consortium, The Collage Collaborative™.  The Collage Collaborative creates artwork to promote the emerging arts corridor on Chicago Avenue and the neighborhoods that border it in South in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  The project’s intergenerational collage process uses neighborhood senior citizens’ stories as inspiration, and its youths’ painted paper as material. Anderson conducted discussions about the history and culture of the neighborhoods with senior citizen’s groups such as the Senior Center at Sabathani Community Center. She also conducted painting sessions within youth programming at Pillsbury House and Urban Arts Academy. In addition, she collected surveys at art events sponsored by Arts on Chicago and at photographer Wing Young Huie’s Third Place Gallery.

The long-term goal of the Collage Collaborative is to actively engage community members of all ages and abilities in one or more steps of creating a community collage. Active group participation will increase positive, creative and collective community identity.  The original, finished artwork is displayed in the participating community centers.  In addition, postcards printed from the artwork have been distributed at these community centers and area businesses.   Digital versions of the artwork will be available at collagecollaborative.org.

Painting and interview sessions were held through March 2013.  This year, the Collage Collaborative has secured funding needed to supply all needed materials and facilitation for painting and discussion groups.  If the project is well received, the project will look for additional revenue to continue the project in subsequent years. Contact Patricia at patriciaanderson4@me.com for further information, for copies of surveys, to schedule a focus group for an adult or senior group, to schedule a painting session for a youth program, or to volunteer to help assemble the collages.

Locations*:

• Fiber Sprawl
• All
• The Mobile Sign Shop