Hannah Johnson has always been a small coin collector.
But the 23-year-old has taken the hobby to a new level has she hopes to collect 420,000 pennies for her latest art project.
So far, she has about 5,500.
“I was looking for flooring for Gallery 33 and I wanted something eco-friendly, that was fun and cheap,” Johnson said.
“I came across pennies as a means of doing flooring and I thought it was the coolest idea ever. I have a few pennies because I’ve been collecting them since I was a kid.”
Johnson’s plan is to place the pennies onto a one-by-one foot mesh squares and then place those squares on the floor. The whole process, including making sure the pennies stay put, should create a hard and durable floor.
She said it’s probably going to take hundreds of hours to get the flooring done.
The timing of the project wasn’t by accident. The federal government announced it would be phasing out the penny starting on Monday. It’s expected to save taxpayers $11 million annually.
Johnson said she thought it would be a good opportunity to get as many pennies as possible and given them a chance to be immortalized.
Johnson graduated from the visual arts program at Lakehead University in May and later came to own Gallery 33 on Cumberland Street. Her art revolves around using metal especially copper making very delicate clothing.
“Working with metal isn’t cheap,” she said.
Having experience with copper, Johnson said she was drawn to working with pennies.
“The penny is a part of Canadian history that is being phased out,” she said. “You can forever look at it in the floor. It’s weird why they are phasing it out too; the penny is worth more than the penny itself.
Art has always been a fascination of Johnson. She continued to take art classes since she was a child and all the way through High School.
Although most of her pennies are from donations, Johnson hopes to receive grants to purchase more coins if she needs to. He said she found it a bit funny that she was spending lots of money to get a penny, something the federal government decided not to do anymore.
She hopes to have the project by May at the latest.
Anyone who wishes to donate can visit Gallery 33 and the Baggage Centre Arts Centre at Prince Arthur’s Landing.
