Visitor Info
Grassroots art is a term describing art made by people with no formal artistic training . . . (usually of retirement age) using ordinary materials in an extraordinary way . . . and frequently creating a whole artistic environment around themselves, effectively making themselves part of the artwork.
Such work tends to be difficult to classify because it falls outside the sphere of fine art as well as that of traditional folk art in which skills and patterns may be passed from one generation to another.
Whether it’s called art brut or outsider art, the phenomenon is world-wide, with sites identified from France to India, Switzerland to Thailand, and all over the United States.
- Kansas ranks third in the States in the number of grassroots art sites, after Wisconsin and California.
- Grassroots art environments tend to be rather ephemeral, with ninety percent of the sites destroyed at the death of the maker.
- Over the last thirty years, enthusiasts have tried to document sites photographically and to preserve some part of them; the Grassroots Art Center is involved both in documenting and in preserving sites.
(The 3 photos relate to Mri-Pilar creating the G-wiz Garage.)