ABSTRACT
Near the end of February 2020, the Art Education Club officers at California State University, Northridge introduced members to a collaborative collage artmaking project, inspired by Marty McCutcheon's "Check It Out" project. Club members--preservice art education students, mentor art teachers, and higher education faculty--had recently voted to meet more than once a month for artmaking opportunities. These new events were organized around creating work together to promote individual and collaborative experiences while strengthening relationships and building leadership capacity. With 18 club members, partners, friends, and children in attendance at the February artmaking evening participants shared ideas and stories, creating a lively environment and excitement about exchanging projects. The plan was to leave with someone else's collage, adding to it over the month, bringing it to the next meeting scheduled for the end of March, viewing works in progress, and exchanging them for another collage to contribute to. This opportunity to make art together, although physically distanced, connected participants in unexpected ways during this time of isolation.