Oral History of Patty Mitchell Conducted on March 27, 2025 By Meg Corner
Transcript of Interview of Patty Mitchell by Meg Corner.
Interviewee
Mitchell, Patty
Interviewer
Corner, Meg
Interview Date
3-27-2025
Description
Patty Mitchell is an artist and social entrepreneur whose work focuses on facilitating collaboration between artists with and without developmental differences. She graduated from Ohio University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography in 1987 and a Master of Fine Arts in Photography in 1987. While at Ohio University as an undergraduate, Mitchell was a resident volunteer at the Athens Mental Health Center, known currently as The Ridges. Her work with developmentally different residents inspired her to found Passion Works Studio in 1998 to foster connections and purpose through the arts for people with developmental differences. Through this collaborative community arts core artists which is now the official flower of Athens, Ohio.
In addition to being the founder and executive director of Passion Works Studio, Mitchell has previously served as a field representative and artist-in-residence at the Ohio Arts Council. Since 2012, she has been the co-founder and director for Honey for the Heart, a puppet and community performance company. Since 2015, Mitchell has served as the CEO of Creative Abundance Consulting, which assists other organizations in enhancing the wellbeing of people with developmental differences. She is also a community fellow at Ohio University with the Barbara Geralds Storytelling Institute. Patty Mitchell has coauthored Upcycling Sheltered Workshops: A Revolutionary Approach to Transforming Workshops into Creative Spaces with Susan Dlouhy. Mitchell has received a Distinguished Alumna Award from Award from the Ohio Arts Council, a Citizen of the Year Award from Civitan, and a Keystone Award from Ohio University for outstanding community service.
This interview was conducted as part of a class project for Recording Memory: Methods and Uses of Oral History, Spring 2025, Alexander G. Lovelace (Ph.D.) Instructor
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Keywords
Patty Mitchell, Ohio University, Athens Ohio, Athens Mental Health Center, Passion Works Studio, Passion Flower, Arts-based Inclusion, Social impact through Art, Honey for the Heart, Ohio Arts Council, Keystone Award, Oral History, 2025
Disciplines
Oral History
Publication Date
Summer 8-14-2025
Interview Location
Athens, Ohio
Digital Publisher
Ohio University Libraries
Document Type
Oral History
Duration
00:40:34
File Format
audio/aac
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Mitchell, Patty and Corner, Meg, "Oral History of Patty Mitchell Conducted on March 27, 2025 By Meg Corner" (2025). HIST 4798/5798: Recording Memory: Methods and Uses of Oral History. 3.
https://ohioopen.library.ohio.edu/hist4798/3
Comments
Interview transcript provided by Meg Corner.