Back to Full List


Pathways to the Center
Milenko Matanovic
Oil on Panel
Gretchen Van Dyke, artist

Milenko Matanovic is the founder and executive director of Issaquah-based Pomegranate Center. He was born and raised in Slovenia and has been a member of the Issaquah community for over 20 years. One of Milenko's goals in founding Pomegranate Center was to bring art out of galleries and into the streets. He involves entire communities in creating his work. In an interview with Grist Magazine in 2005 he states, "I founded Pomegranate Center in 1986 to connect community participation with art, education, and the environment because I felt that separating them into exclusive compartments was no longer productive." Pomegrante Center has led the design and construction of more than 20 gathering places in communities throughout the U.S. and abroad. These have ranged from amphitheatres for 300 people to shelters, community gardens, and small parks.

As a working artist, Milenko has a creative influence in all Pomegranate Center's community gathering projects. He draws constantly and enjoys creating small watercolor paintings when traveling to other parts of the world. In Gretchen's painting the sunflower represents the power and beauty of Milenko's work. The seeds in the center of the flower represent the gathering place itself and its power to bring new life to the community. Petals become homes lining the center with multiple pathways leading from front doors to the center of the flower.

At the center of the flower, each seed has been painted with a fingerprint to express the involvement of the people in creating their own gathering place. In a project for Medina Elementary School, Milenko used this powerful method in his work with school children, offering each child an opportunity to contribute to the work.

The personality of a community comes to life when local residents come together to create a place of significance that will bring them together over and over again.
~ Milenko Matanovic


Gretchen chose Milenko as her partner out of curiosity about Pomegranate Center. Over the past 15 years of raising her children here in Issaquah, she would come in contact with beautiful gathering places and kept seeing Pomegranate Center's name on them. She wanted to know who was behind all these community projects. What she didn't realize until she got to know him better is how much work he has done both locally and in other parts of the world (including China, Russia, Mexico and other parts of the United States), his history as an artist, and his beautiful vision for the future of communities. Working with Milenko on this project has caused Gretchen to think about ways in which art and community can be reunited.