Pomegranate Center
“It was like 'social jazz', with people discovering common themes on which they could then improvise with their own various talents. This work became The Pomegranate Center. ” - Milenko
In 1986, Milenko founded the non-profit organization Pomegranate Center with the intention of linking art with community betterment. There, Milenko developed a process whereby community members identified the project vision, designers and artists expressed their ideas, and those separate forces were brought together for the actual build - the whole process taking just a few months from start to finish. He collaborated with artists, architects, craftspeople and builders in creating over 60 parks and gathering spaces around the Pacific Northwest and beyond. Here are the names of Milenko’s remarkable collaborators who helped Pomegranate Center succeed: James Hubbell, Chiaki Takanohara, Duncan Chalmers, Bree Dillon, Ilisa Goldman, Heinz Sodamin, Heidi Breeze-Harris, Paul Olson, Katya Matanovič, Amna Alvi, Paul Sorey, Deanna Goldy, Eric Higbee, and many others.
“The glue that could hold such a [diverse] group of people together was the place they lived and worked. We came to realize that while working on creating a park together we also built invisible social bonds: increased trust, a willingness to become better acquainted, to learn from each other, to help reduce crime, and to encourage those who felt unsure how to participate in the community. Our method was to work with community members throughout the entire journey. In the end, not only did we create a project where many people said "I did this," but we also changed habits, where community members asked more of on another. And, most importantly, they learned how to work together and appreciate their differences as important connective links.”
In the last decade, people began approaching Pomegranate Center to learn more about the process that led them to be so successful in these projects. Hence the Pomegranate Method was born - a training program to prepare organizations, communities and individuals for a collaborative future. Since then, a multitude of trainings have taken place in the USA, New Zealand and Slovenia, passing on the methods to over a thousand people who hope to take this knowledge into their own communities.
“Collaboration thrives in the process of gradual discovery in which ideas from multiple sources join to create a solution more potent than any single point of view.”