PROMOTING GLOBAL community through ... drink coasters?

That’s the mission of Transcultural Exchange, a national artists’ collective that has held an international exhibit over the past few months called "The Coaster Project: Destination, the World." Artists construct coasters out of whatever they like — from metal to yarn — participate in a group show, and then give the coasters out for free at the end. (Drinks not included.)

"The aim of the effort is to create an international, public forum through these exhibitions and related events where people from all parts of the world can realize that not only can positive things happen when people work together, but that art can act as a reflection of the common denominator that unites us all — the basic human desire to express ourselves through images," explains the project’s overview statement, which can be read online at www.transculturalexchange.com/coasterproject/index.html.

The term "artist" is used loosely in this show. The first 100 people who responded to an open call for work earlier this year were accepted to participate in the unusual exhibit. Each artist came up with a coaster design, reproduced it 100 times, and sent the batch of coasters to Transcultural Exchange. The artists’ group, in turn, shuffled up all the coasters from every artist and gave each participant back a complete set of 100 different ones. The artists were then responsible for arranging a public exhibit of the collective work. For example, Moni, a Mongolian artist working in Boston, took his exhibit back to his country on March 11. "I thought it was manageable, and I was happy to show art work that way. I thought we would be able to pull that off," he explained.

Locally, the coasters were exhibited at the Fuller Museum, March through May. And last week, they popped up at a gallery at the New England School of Design (NESD), where they will remain through Saturday, June 1. At the opening for the exhibit at NESD, the 100 well-traveled coasters were joined by another 400 on the wall, made by anyone in Boston who felt so inclined, including students from an Andover elementary school. The event marked a sendoff of sorts for the coasters, which will be transported to the café at the DeCordova Museum on June 8, where they will be given away for free (no purchase necessary).

Each coaster is a sort of mini-canvas. Examples include a fuchsia crocheted doily; a crayon drawing of an ice-cream cone on a piece of paper; and an oil painting of a landscape that bears a fluffy-cloud likeness to Thomas Kinkade’s work. Mary Elizabeth Van Der Cross, a theater director who is also the webmaster at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, held up a petri dish with a yarn blob in the middle. "I cultured an island in a petri dish," she explained. "I’m always thinking about islands. I was going to do a disease, but decided on an island instead."

"All you have to do is cut four inches of paper, put some paint on it, and you’re an artist!" enthused Mary Sherman, the coordinator of the exhibit. "You find out the world is so small; we’re introducing artists to one another."

Sherman dutifully fulfilled her role as curator and hostess, introducing the Big-Name Arteests at the exhibit, such as Nan Freeman, a visual artist whose work has recently been shown at the Museum of Fine Arts. Freeman walked over to her piece, a woven, laminated, shredded piece of paper from a glossy art catalogue, and explained her motivation. "I just thought, I’ll turn the art supplies catalogue directly into art," she said. "I hope people drink off mine; I’d like to see a few olives on that."

Around the room, a few kids raced around parents’ legs and under the drink table. They, too, were artists. Rebecca, a nine-year-old, proudly explained her coaster pièce de résistance, a crayon rendition of a flower in a flower pot. "Since it’s spring, I like to draw spring things," she said matter-of-factly, pausing to pose for a photographer. Rebecca’s mother, Francine Koslow Miller, an art critic for ArtForum magazine and art teacher at Andover’s West Elementary, enlisted her second-, third-, and fifth-grade students to contribute coasters to the show. "I just wanted them to experience their creativity," she explained. "That’s why I got involved in it; it’s an opportunity to have their work shown with artists."

While the artists schmoozed, hugged their mommies’ legs, and posed for photos, someone quietly and pointedly took an important leap for the exhibit. On a podium sat one of the more unusual coasters, a sculpture with five pigs, held up by wires, that seem to fly around the perimeter. In the middle, someone had placed a half-empty glass of white wine.

Cheers!

The coasters will be given away starting June 8 at the DeCordova Museum, 51 Sandy Pond Road, Lincoln. Call (781) 259-8351 for more information. Find out more about the Coaster Project at www.transculturalexchange.com/coasterproject/index.html.