Community artist

“I am both a visual artist and a community artist. Since 2006, I have participated in various community art projects as a director, coordinator and workshop leader.

As an artist, I am particularly interested in the everyday lives of people as well as in the meaning and significance that it holds.

I find people’s stories interesting and feel that their experiences, knowledge, rituals, routines, hopes and dreams are not only important but very alluring. Community art is as much about telling people’s stories as it is about listening to them. Above all, however, it is about making ordinary life visible to others.

I develop my community art projects together with their intended audience and consider it important that community art reflects the people who make it. In my workshops, I have combined many different techniques, everything from paintings to installations and garden parties to audio works.

As a community artist, I want to deal with the problems of modern society, such as loneliness, inequality, unemployment and anxiety. I believe community art has true significance in the here and now – it can make a difference!

It is also important that a project allows people to encounter not only themselves but each other as well. A sense of community has, therefore, often been the most important benefit gained in my workshops. These types of encounters enabled by art allow people to feel heard, which for some may be the first time in a long while. In my community art projects, the artist and participants work together as equals.

I believe that happiness is the main objective of human life.“

– The Saari Residence’s community artist Pia Bartsch