Collage in the Classroom
Cathy Belben, Librarian, Burlington-Edison High School

What is Collage?
Collage is an art form in which images and/or objects are combined in one piece of artwork. The term “collage” comes from the French word coller, which means “to paste.”
Closely related to collage is assemblage, in which three-dimensional objects are combined in pieces of art.

ArtLex (www.artlex.com), an online art resource, defines collage as “A picture or design created by adhering such basically flat elements as newspaper, wallpaper, printed text and illustrations, photographs, cloth, string, etc., to a flat surface, when the result becomes three-dimensional, and might also be called a relief sculpture. Most of the elements adhered in producing most collages are "found" materials. Introduced by the Cubist artists, this process was widely used by artists who followed, and is a familiar technique in contemporary art.”

Paper items that are collected and incorporated into collage are called “ephemera.” The collection of various ephemera is a popular hobby, and numerous organizations exist for people interest in general ephemera as well as particular ephemera such as greeting cards, postcards, tickets, and game pieces. Check out www.ephemerasociety.org for more information.

Well-Known Collage Artists

	Nick Bantock, author of series of collage-like books beginning with Griffin and Sabine
	Romare Bearden, African-American Harlem Renaissance Artist, 1914-1988
	Ross Palmer Beecher, Seattle collage/assemblage artist
	Robert Rauchenberg, 1925—
	Larry Rivers
	Cubist artists, including Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) and Georges Braque (1882-1963), are often credited with introducing collage as an art form.
	French artists Henri Matisse (1869-1954) also added collage to his repertoire.

Why to Create Collage With Kids

	Collage frees artists to let go
	it’s perfect for people who aren’t gifted at drawing or sculpting
	collage has no rules
	multiple media can be used
	creating collage is fun
	students can incorporate their own items, such as photos and drawings, into their art
	collage is very right-brain, random-abstract. In a left-brained, linear world, collage can help people escape boundaries and look beyond limitations

Approaching Collage

Beginning collage artists are often intimidated by the final products they see produced by other, more experienced artists. The key with collage—as with any type of art—is to concentrate on the process and enjoy it, rather than on the final product. In Creative Collage for Crafters, author Katherine Duncan Aimone offers several quick tips for beginning artists. She describe how to go about organizing one’s workspace and creating a surface to work on first, but says the most important part of doing creative work is preparing oneself mentally. “Allow yourself to slow down before you begin,” she writes. “Put on comfortable clothes. Pet your cat. Hit the play button and listen to your favorite composer. Thumb through a book by an admired artist that inspires you. Whatever you do,” she warns, “Don’t approach your work with preconceived notions of becoming the next undiscovered Picasso.”

Much of the important work in creating collage begins before you paste anything: prepare yourself mentally, collect items to use, set up a workspace, and let yourself go. But when you are ready to begin creating, there are a few tips about the actual construction that can help:

Start with a sketch. You can always change it, but it helps to have a general idea of where you’re heading. Think about a color scheme (use a color wheel if necessary) and consider the materials you have to work with.
Think carefully about the background and begin there. Collage has depth, and that depth begins with the very first layer. Select a background paper and embellish it as needed with rubber stamps or stencils.
Choose a focal point and design around that.
Think about pleasing your audience. People tend to enjoy art with multiple dimensions and textures: How can you add:
1. something that hangs down?
2. something that opens up?
3. something shiny?
4. something see-through, like a window or a hole?
5. something soft?
6. something to pull, twist, turn, or undo?
7. words?

Gathering Materials

One of the great advantages of creating collage is that because it is so often created with bits and pieces of found items and paper ephemera, artists are not required to purchase much. Consider beginning a collection of the following items for use in collage. Remember—and this is key—you do not have to know how you are going to use these items right now. Start a box where you can collect colorful and interesting pieces and save them. Someday, you’ll be glad you did.

Stuff to save…a few examples:

old greeting cards and postcards
game pieces and scorecards
ticket stubs
any foreign ephemera—train schedules, bus tickets, etc.
plane and train itineraries
wallpaper
playing cards
game boards
old books that can be ripped and disassembled
postage stamps
photos
origami paper
fortune cookie fortunes
postcards (easy to find at thrift, antique, and bookstores)
candy wrappers (especially unusual or foreign)
maps (outdated maps are great for backgrounds)
menus
catalogues
old magazines (look in the discard pile at your local library)
wine bottle labels
match books and boxes

Collage Projects With Students

	At the beginning of the year, have students create collages about themselves using words and images they’ve chosen that represent various aspects of their personalities and lives.
	After reading a story, have students brainstorm images from that story and then draw and gather them from magazines and other sources. Individuals and groups can create collage with the images.
	Have students create boxes about themselves: the inside contains words, images, and objects that represent their more private selves, and the outside shows things people know about them.
	Make a picture or shape out of random torn images.
	Using tissue paper, create a collage that is framed by something else (like a clothes hanger or a cardstock frame) that can be place in the window for light to shine through).
	Make a collage book: A spiral bound book divided from top to bottom into three sections, the pages of which turn separately. The top pages are all heads, the middles are mid-sections, and the bottoms are legs and feet.
	Teaching colors: have students use magazines to collect images of a certain color.
	Using old nature magazines, have students invent weird beasts by combining parts of images of other animals.

Additional Resources for Creating Collage

Books

Aimone, Katherine Duncan. Creative Collage for Crafters. Asheville: lark Books. 2001.

Atkinson, Jennifer L. Collage Art: A Step-By-Step Guide and Showcase. Gloucester: Rockport Books, Inc. 1996.

Harrison, Holly. Collage for the Soul: Expressing Hopes and Dreams Through Art. Gloucester: Rockport Books, Inc. 2003.

Hellmuth, Claudine. Collage Discovery Workshop: Make Your Own Collage Creations Using Vintage Photos, Found Objects and Ephemera. North Light Books. 2003.

Websites

Take a look at some collages here at this virtual gallery: http://www.collagegallery.com/

Collage artist Claudine Hellmuth shares here work here: http://www.collageartist.com/portfolio_new.htm

Ephemera Society: www.ephemerasocietyorg

Creative Portal has all kinds of links to creative projects and information:http://www.creativity-portal.com/howto/artscrafts/collage.html

The International Museum of Collage, Assemblage, and Construction