How to Organize a Community Art Project

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My kids’ elementary school needed help creating grade-level projects for a school auction so I came up with these adorable and easy to execute art projects for each grade level!

A person stands smiling by a table displaying colorful framed artworks. The artworks feature vibrant geometric shapes, hearts, and a floral design in a vase. The background shows shelves with decorative items, including bowls and small animal figures.

Before I go into details about the logistics of all this, let me first give a quick overview as to how I tackle this type of project. First stop is always Pinterest. I looked up something like “group art projects” and started scrolling through the various images for inspo. Ultimately I didn’t bother clicking into any specific links because the visuals were enough for me to go off of, but I’ll link to all of them at the end of this post in case you’re interested.

Step 1. Determine Grade Level Projects

We wanted something for grades K-4 (5th graders added their hand prints to a donated cornhole set) so I did my best to choose and assign projects that would best suit each age range. I.e. the kindergartners were cutting and gluing and the 4th graders were making more complicated flower collages. If you’re doing this as a community project, perhaps give some thought as to the age of your artists and select the artwork accordingly.

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A display of colorful geometric paper art featuring circles and diamonds in shades of blue, pink, purple, and green, mounted in a grid on a white background.

Step 2. Do the Math

Before I could prep anything, I had to figure out what kind of layout I was dealing with for each project. I was able to get a head count from the school’s main office and worked from there. For example, if a grade had 29 students, I planned on a 5 x 6 array (5 columns with 6 squares in each one) of 4″ squares for total artwork dimensions of 20″ x 24″.

Framed artwork featuring a colorful grid of heart designs in various styles and colors, each unique in pattern and background, displayed against a white wall.

Step 3. Assemble and Organize Instructions and Supplies

I typed up a one-sheeter for each grade level with instructions that included a photo of the inspiration image. Each project was pretty self explanatory, but I tried to be as clear and articulate as possible. Think about materials you want people using, materials you *don’t* want people using, etc.

Flyers for "1st, 2nd, and 4th Grade Auction Art" projects with images of artwork. Instructions include coloring, returning forms, and contact info for Charlotte Smith. Each flyer thanks participants for contributing to collaborative art pieces.

For every child in the school, they took home a ziplock bag with a copy of their instructions and then any specific materials they needed for their project. We assumed kids had basic materials like crayons, watercolors and glue sticks at home so all I provided was the precut circles and squares as well as a few sheets of colorful card stock. (For the kindergarten shape cutouts, they also got a template of shapes to cut/ trace just to make sure the entire thing felt cohesive.)

A hand holding an open plastic bag containing a round white disk and a sheet of paper with colorful artwork titled "1st Grade Auction Art" on it. The background surface is white with scattered paint marks.

A collection of art supplies: a yellow Strathmore drawing pad, Canson watercolor paper pad, and two packs of colorful Reston Lloyd index cards. The items are on a white surface.

Step 4. Collect and Remind and Collect

I was so pleasantly surprised by how well everyone at our school did completing and returning their projects! We didn’t get quite 100% but it was pretty darn close! I left some extra supplies and instructions with the main office for the kids who inevitably misplaced theirs and we were pretty persistent with reminders and our deadline.

A circular drawing featuring a sunny beach scene with a bright sun, blue water, and colorful stepping stones. Two small figures, a beach umbrella, and a chair are also depicted. Surrounding circles show other colorful drawings.

Step 6. Assemble

I planned each artwork with appropriate frames in mind so, for example, the artwork mentioned above in Step 2 was going into a 22×28″ frame purchased on Amazon. The frames for these projects are *not* fancy. They are basic white frames so they look great but didn’t break our budget.

Framed artwork of colorful circular drawings by children. Each circle contains different patterns and colors, such as stripes, stars, and abstract designs, on a light background. Shelves with art supplies and decorations are in the background.

I picked up some poster board at the craft store to use as the base layer and lightly penciled in the boundaries for each array. I used a hot glue gun because I knew it would hold everything in place, but you could certainly use double stick tape, etc. Once assembled, I added a title to each one: Kindergarten, XXX Elementary, 2024-25

A framed abstract artwork made of colorful geometric shapes and patterns in various colors including green, blue, purple, and pink, arranged in a grid format. It rests against a shelf with various objects and decorations in the background.

For the flower collage, I painted some heavy watercolor paper with craft paint and then used a piece of old wallpaper for the vase. I arranged the flowers and glued them in place with my hot glue gun.

Colorful paper collage featuring purple, yellow, and pink flowers with a heart and gem decorations on a pastel backdrop. The mixed media arrangement includes various geometric shapes.

A framed artwork featuring a decorative vase filled with an array of colorful flowers, including blue, purple, and green hues. Some flowers have heart-shaped petals, and the background consists of subtle blue and gray tones.

These collective art projects would be perfect for lots of places: summer camp, after school programs, Sunday school, libraries and more! In my opinion, the key to success with these large scale group projects is that each singular project is fairly simple and self explanatory… it’s not a ‘heavy lift’ for each child to complete their small square or circle or flower. We didn’t get everyone to send back their project but we got vast majority and each grade should be so proud of their colorful piece of art! I’d hang any of these in my home regardless of whether or not I knew all the artists… bonus points that these are made my kids and their friends!