Olmsted County's Oxbow Park & Zollman Zoo

Artist In Residence
Cassandra Buck worked with Olmsted County's Oxbow Park & Zollman Zoo in additional to Rochester's Cascade Lake Park and Quarry Hill Nature Center.  For Oxbow Park and Zollman Zoo, she held six art workshops for the community. She also worked with local art shops, Griot Arts and Rochester Art Center, to provide free art kits for local residents for those residents who wanted to participate, but could not attend one of the workshops.  
List of questions asked on the video and as part of the artworkshops




One of the goals of the Artists in Residence program was to make it a community project.  This meant involving as many people in the community as possible.  In addition to hosting the art creation sessions at the park, Cassandra spent time talking to the people who attended the sessions to understand what the park and the zoo meant to them.

For those people not able to attend the sessions, Cassandra wanted to have them feel included in the project, so the provided art kits included a video in which Cassandra gave information regarding how to create the art as well as information regarding how to submit the artwork to her.  In the video, she also asked the people to submit information regarding the park and zoo including 
Historical Signs
When people entered the park, there used to be signs that gave information and history of the park.  These signs had been taken down.  As the final project for the park, Cassandra used the actual artwork that was created by the community to create collages.  Each collage then served as the background for a new set of signs showcasing history of the park and which greets people as they enter the park.

All of the signs taken together create the art piece titled: Piecing It All Together
Picture
Cassandra Buck graduated with a bachelor’s degree in art education from Winona State University in 2008. She taught middle school art for seven years and is currently working as a full-time artist. She is a leader within the local art community and is an advocate for women in the arts. Cassandra is the Arts Programmer/Gallery Curator at Forager Brewery in Rochester, Minnesota.

Cassandra has exhibited as a solo artist as well as various group exhibitions including Winona State University, The University of Minnesota, and at the Austin Art Works Center in Austin, Minnesota. In 2016 she was awarded Rochester Mayor’s Medal of Honor for Artistic/Cultural Achievement. In 2018 Cassandra opened her own Shop/Studio, Clover & Rose, which specializes in unique gifts, art, and vintage items. In 2022 and 2023 Cassandra was awarded Minnesota State Arts Board grants to work with under-served communities and neighborhoods in Rochester to create neighborhood murals. Cassandra lives in Rochester, Minnesota with her husband and two children.