Building community pride through the art of placemaking

By James Goldmeer
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To most people, a curved stucco wall at a fire station or a utility enclosure at a city park is just something to drive past without a second glance. But to multidisciplinary artist Kristine Kollasch, dull concrete corners are blank canvases waiting to anchor a neighborhood’s identity.

"Placemaking isn't just about putting art on a wall," Kollasch told a crowd gathered at Goodyear City Hall. "It's about taking a space people ignore and giving them a reason to claim it as their own."

For Kollasch, who brings more than 40 years of commercial design, public art, and community advocacy experience to Arizona's West Valley, placemaking is a core philosophy that drives her creative practice.

"Placemaking is a process of creating quality places that people want to live, work, play, and learn in," Kollasch said. "It's using public architecture and design to help define a place, bringing added significance... sometimes helping define historical significance through public art."

To demonstrate how art transforms ordinary geography into memorable destinations, Kollasch pointed to global landmarks like Anish Kapoor’s "Cloud Gate," commonly known as "The Bean," in Chicago, Mount Rushmore, and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim Museum. Kollasch said these works define their surrounding environments by offering places for communities to gather, take photosa nd share a sense of collective identity.

In the Sonoran Desert, placemaking requires equal parts creative vision and structural engineering. Extreme heat, monsoon storms, and relentless sun quickly destroy traditional outdoor materials.

To build installations that endure, Kollasch crafts custom steel frameworks, hand-forged metals, and ceramic tiles fired in her studio kiln to more than 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit, creating glass-like surfaces that will not fade or weather over time.

"The reason I'm using steel, glass, and ceramic tiles is because they're going to endure our monsoons and blazing sun," Kollasch said. "In 100 years, long after I'm gone, these pieces are going to be the exact same color."

For Goodyear residents, Kollasch’s functional approach to public art is already integrated into the local landscape. At Fire Station 102 in Estrella, her installation, titled "Guardians of the Wilderness," solved an engineering hurdle, deteriorating, curved stucco wall that could not support heavy tile work.

Kollasch designed floating steel framework panels anchored past the stucco directly into the underlying block wall.

Because the station serves as a wildland firefighting training facility, Kollasch ensured the community helped build the story behind the art.

She hosted hands-on workshops with local students and residents from a nearby 55-plus community, who crafted custom ceramic tiles featuring desert wildlife like Gila monsters, roadrunners, and quail. By inviting everyone to contribute their own ideas Kollasch said the final installations became living time capsules reflective of the entire community.

The final installation features a sweeping sky band transitioning from morning to night symbolizing the 24/7 commitment of first responders and incorporates 19 stars honoring the fallen Yarnell Hill Firefighters.

"A lot of my art is community-based. When you involve the community, art stops being something the city installed and starts being something the neighborhood built," Kollasch said. "A year or 10 years later, someone can walk past that wall, point to a specific tile, and say, 'I made that.' That personal connection turns (public property into) a shared heirloom."

That philosophy extends across every scale of her work,  from functional placemaking in pediatric medical facilities, where vibrant murals offer comforting positive distractions for anxious children to personal placemaking in private backyard sculptures designed as family time capsules.

Beyond her primary practice, Fine Art & Creative Environments LLC, Kollasch serves as lead curator at First Studio Gallery in downtown Phoenix, helps organize the annual Sunnyslope Studio Tour, and has spent nearly 20 years on the board of Free Arts for Abused Children of Arizona.

Whether guiding students through tile-making or welding heavy steel for city centers, Kollasch said she remains focused on turning everyday spaces into shared landmarks.

"I don't need to make a million dollars," Kollasch said as residents crowded around her display tables after the presentation. "I just need to keep creating, feed the dog, and help people make their space a happy place."

Visit artandenvironments.com for more information.

James Goldmeer
Reporter | Goodyear & Litchfield Park

jgoldmeer@iniusa.org

Meet James
James Goldmeer joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in July 2024, starting their career as a reporter in Goodyear and Litchfield Park.

Community: James grew up in the West Valley, calling Avondale home and going to school in Glendale and Peoria. Returning to the community after university, James plans to get involved in everything arts and culture, and civil rights.

Education: Northern Arizona University a bachelor's degree in Journalism, a certificate in Professional Communications, with a minor in English. 

Random Fact: James spent half a year as an intern for the Arizona House of Representatives communication team, working with legislators to inform the public through press releases and social media.  

Hobbies: James collects postcards and old books, reads memoirs and attends local jazz shows.