Collage Club pieces itself together

Among the host of new clubs and student organizations ushered in by the new school year, one stands out with its crafty flair: Collage Club, founded by Jay Kratz `23, along with help from Libby Eggert `25.  

This club will provide a space for newcomers and experienced crafters alike to engage with collaging as well as create a welcoming and comfortable environment to de-stress. Kratz said that they are eager to create an accessible space on campus where people can come together and work on cutting and pasting images in a community.  

At meetings, students will be given the chance to create collages ranging anywhere from a whimsical display of thought, to a piece dedicated to a favorite friend or that one celebrity they have a micro-obsession with (i.e. many Taylor Swift and Phoebe Bridgers collages to come). The club will provide materials such as stickers, tapes, images and other embellishments as requested.  

In the future, Kratz hopes to have the means to display the collages made in the club in a printed collection at the end of the semester or year.  

 Club meetings will take place at the Stonewall Resource Center (SRC). The SRC is located in the basement of Younker Hall, and it is intended to provide a safe space and resource hub for LGBTQIA+ students. Kratz said that this space is the perfect place to host the collage club, due to the students that have gravitated towards the activity.  

While pretty pictures and cut-out stars are certainly part of the fun, there is more to collage than just cutting things out.  

“There’s such a strong, just inherently queer connection to the art of collaging,” Kratz said.  

Collaging gives artists a chance to deconstruct art and tell their own stories with it -— an opportunity that holds unique appeal to members of the LGBTQIA+ community who rarely see their own worlds reflected in mainstream art. It’s queering the creative narrative by bringing together materials, including those that have been discarded or dismissed, to channel one’s own artistic vision. 

When asked what niche Collage Club fills on a campus rife with artistic opportunities, Kratz offered that art, especially at Grinnell, is often subject to so much pressure to be perfect that it can detract from enjoyment and self-expression.  

“[Collaging] is such an intimate portrayal of your innermost emotions, and I think it’s able to represent that without a perfectionistic atmosphere intruding,” Kratz said. 

 Collage club meetings will take place on Thursdays from 8 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. in the SRC. Students can drop in at any time if they feel like expressing themselves in a new, crafty way.