Revealing Community Through Collaborative Art

January 06, 2020

What does community mean to you? This is the question a new community art project seeks to answer with the help of Minneapolis-based muralist Greta McLain.

Anoka-Ramsey Community College was recently awarded an arts learning grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board to bring a 1,000 sq. ft. community mural to the Coon Rapids Campus. As a community-based project, the mural is intended to help tell the story of community in and around the campus.

“This project is not just for the college, it’s for the whole community. Everyone can participate in the design process and help to paint the mural as well,” said Rachel Breen, the Anoka-Ramsey Art Faculty member who is helping to lead the project.

“Our buildings say something about us as a community,” said Greta, who has led more than 30 mural projects. “We want to create something that represents the hopes, dreams and vision of the community so ultimately everyone sees themselves in it. In the end, we can say we are proud, not I am proud. We are proud. We are the community.”

For this project to be truly community based, it requires more than one artist and leader. To address this, a student-mentees program was developed. Selected students are working alongside Greta to help lead both the design and painting of the mural.

Esther Stoy is one of the 20+ Anoka-Ramsey students selected as a mentee. She intends to graduate in spring 2020 (the same time the mural is completed) with an Associate of Fine Arts (AFA) degree and transfer to a bachelor’s degree program.

“If someone would have told me when I came to Anoka-Ramsey, or any college, that I would be working on something like this, I wouldn’t have believed them,” said Esther.

“Since their initial training, the mentees have been running the classroom participation events and the broader public events,” Greta said. “Not only are they helping to lead the project and work on the mural, they are gaining so many other skills, such as public speaking.”

For a student like Esther with ambitions to use her creativity to contribute to a workplace where she can solve problems and create things that have a practical, functional use for people, this experience will provide invaluable skills.

“Just being part of this process is a once in a lifetime experience,” Esther concluded. “It’s exciting that what we’re doing will be so important to this campus and the surrounding community.”

To learn more about this project and ways you can get involved, visit AnokaRamsey.edu/muralproject