The Piece Corps

By Curt Brown
Star Tribune
Published Saturday, November 11 2006 

As cars and buses whizzed by, Leslee Kollins and Maria Ricke crouched on the Snelling Avenue sidewalk, carefully gluing 1-inch chunks of colorful porcelain onto a drab gray cement planter.

Weini Sium smiled in the nearby doorway of her Family Dollar Saver convenience store at the corner of Snelling and Sherburne Avenues.

"The work they're doing is just beautiful," the store owner said. "They're making our whole neighborhood classy and elegant."

About 120 volunteers are working with a St. Paul neighborhood group and the local craft shop Mosaic On A Stick to brighten the dinghy stretch of Snelling between University Avenue and Hamline University.

The project, which is nearly completed, includes 170 mosaic medallions - 17 surrounding each of the 10 kettle-sized planters.

The idea bubbled up two years ago when Ricke and Lori Greene opened the mosaic store on Snelling, selling ceramic tiles and offering mosaic classes.

"Snelling looks kind of gritty and dirty, so we started talking about mosaics on the planters as a community art project," Ricke said.

The Hamline Midway Coalition, with headquarters across the street, loved the idea and helped secure a $5,000 city grant. Ricke and Greene taught 27 neighbors how to make mosaic medallions, using porcelain fragments on 10-inch, plate-sized circles of mesh netting.

The first 27 mosaic workers, in turn, taught another 100 volunteers, including kindergarten students and senior citizens, men and women and people of various ethnic backgrounds.

"It's one of those projects that doesn't cost a lot of money but really develops a sense of community and really strengthens relationships between people," said Jun-Li Wang, a community organizer at the Hamline Midway Coalition.

The creations include abstract designs and colorful landscapes. Some volunteer artists have injected chickens and ducks into their mosaics, adding a bit of whimsy.

"They have to be really simple, because you generally look at mosaics from a distance," Greene said.

Wang hopes the public artwork will inspire local businesses and other community groups to raise money to add mosaics to the remaining 20 planters on the stretch of Snelling north of University Avenue and South of Hamline University. Hamline kicked in funds last year to help water new flowers in the planters.

Kollins, who lives in New Hope but grew up in St. Paul, heard about the project when she stopped into the mosaic shop. She spent hours the other day sticking shiny black tiles to serve as the background of the mosaics.

"It might seem like a little thing, but you wouldn't say that if you were down here doing it," she said. "I'm just super-impressed with the commitment to community and all the involvement they've got.  It's a great combination that's beautifying the city."