“Everyone has made a collage—kids at school with paper and paste. The artist takes collage and runs with it,” said Pam Cooper the assistant director of Studio Montclair (SMI) and curator of “Considering Collage.”

The exhibit opened last night at the first floor SMI @ Academy Square Gallery, 33 Plymouth St., Montclair and is on view through August 12.

And, run with it, is exactly what 10 collage artists have done.

“Considering Collage” is a smashing group exhibit, just in time for warm weather visits—with or without the kids. Note, collage is the hot topic right now, what with the huge success of the current “Picasso Guitars, 1912-1914” at the Museum of Modern Art. Pablo Picasso and George Braque first exploded the hierarchy and boundaries of the arts with their collages of 100 years ago. Today, Studio Montclair artist and curator Pam Cooper has curated a show— two shows really—that explodes with color, mystery, provocation and out and out delight.

Cooper and I recently enjoyed a far ranging conversation about viewing art, art in public spaces, collage and works in this show. “When I put in an exhibit where it’s not a gallery or museum, I like to educate the public regarding the different ways of making art,” Cooper said “I wanted to show the many possibilities of collage, including three dimensional, sculptural pieces.”

Cooper knows collage: As an artist she uses mixed media in her sculpture, prints and papermaking, and she has been curating exhibits for non profits for five years.

Among the materials used in “Considering Collage” are photographs, print clippings, monoprints, collected objects, images from sacred texts and a wide variety of papers. “Collage artists today can choose from 1,000s of papers,” Cooper said.

Don’t be put off by the word educate, the wide ranging art is glorious and accessible, with a kid friendly corridor.

“I visited all the artists,” Cooper said. “I explained that there was one corridor where I would have either a single larger work or a few smaller ones from each artist that would be especially appealing to children.” Any child will ooh and ah over Rachel Leibman’s “Baboon” and “Elephant” and Katy Murphy’s dessert series.

As advertised, the vision and materials vary greatly among the artists, from the figurative to the abstract or, as Cooper writes, from “snapshots into daily life to elaborate works of obsessive detail.”

Montclair’s Elizabeth Smith Jacobs scavenges materials from sidewalks and house sales. “She loves the patina of old things; she gives each object a life they never had before,” Cooper said. On view are her wall mounted pieces such as “Skull and Bones,” pictured above. The jazz musician/museum buddy/husband and I especially liked her transformative “Devonian Fish,” made of wood, shells, and pods and her deceptively simple, saw toothed “Dress.”

Staying with Montclair-based artists, are two whose works I have been greatly admiring this season: SMI Gallery Directors Virginia Schaffer Block and Rachel Leibman. There are two distinct galleries, one downstairs, one upstairs. Each curated a recently closed, environmentally sensitive exhibit at SMI Gallery @ Academy Square, “Sustainability” and “Rendering Green” respectively.

You can think of collage, of course, as recycling at the highest level.

Virginia Block works both as a painter and as a collagist. “When working with collage I like to combine very dissimilar materials such as lace with corrugated paper or delicate rice paper with heavy leather," Block said in an email. “I look for patterns and textures that relate to one another.  Movement and balance are achieved through the use of color and contrast, often causing the shapes to oscillate between positive and negative roles.”

Block’s works—especially her lintel and portal series—take on a mystical, timeless beauty.

As to Leibman, pictured here are “Urban Illumination #1” a collage from images of graffiti, and “Illumination #23,” a collage from ancient manuscript images with ribbons of serpentine movement.

“What I do is ‘paint’ with the small pieces of paper, using these pieces of paper as my palette in much the same way that a painter would use a palette. When composing the collage, I pay careful attention to the colors and patterns in the pieces,” Leibman said via email. ‘”I cut up images of ancient illuminated manuscripts from different religions, languages, and styles. I am acknowledging where we came from, paying homage to our ancestors who made us what we are.”

There are many pieces I wanted to take home and spend years looking at. All works are for sale, many ranging from $120 to $700 and if I can free up some wall space…who knows?

The jazz musician/museum buddy/husband and I plan to revisit this show often and later this summer, I will write about some of the other wonders of imagination on view.

Here is the complete list of artists on view: Emily Barnett, Virginia Schaffer Block, Circe Dunnell, Cecily Barth Firestein, Linda Ippolito, Elizabeth Smith Jacobs, Rachel Leibman, Katy Murphy, Paula Stark, Barbara Straussberg.

THE SMI GALLERY @ ACADEMY SQUARE is on the ground floor of the Academy Square building, 33 Plymouth Street, Montclair. Hours are Monday-Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and by appointment. Groups welcome. Call (973) 744 1818 or email studiomontclair@aol.com. Learn more about the not for profit Studio Montclair artist collective at www.studiomontclair.org.