Fruit jars glowing on a shelf. A man looking at the dusty remains of his family business. A train track, gleaming like polished sliver. Bridges, buildings, streets, parks and people – all of it Pine City.

These images and many more are on display at the Pine Center for the Arts for one more week; they come from a project that brought seniors and youth together for five days to photograph Pine City, documenting and celebrating it.

Patrick Schifferdecker, site manager of the North West Company Fur Post, said that the seniors and youth volunteers were brought together by the Minnesota Historical Society as part of an effort to create intergenerational programs.

One youth was paired up with one senior, and each team was given a camera, a daily photographic lesson at the Pine Center for the Arts, and an assignment. Then they were sent out into the streets of Pine City.

After two hours or so, they returned, went through their photos and picked the top 25 of the day, then the best photo of the day.

“That’s what you see here today,” said Schifferdecker, looking around at the photo-covered walls of the Pine Center for the Arts. “We got some really great partners and photographers ... and were very fortunate with the group we brought together.”

Photographs from this project – funded through the Arts and Heritage Cultural fund – will be submitted to the Minnesota Historical Society for consideration for inclusion into its collection.

Eileen Anderson was one of the seniors in the program; she was teamed up with 14-year-old Larissa Christensen.

“I love photography, so it was very fun for me,” Christensen said. “I do a lot of experiments at home. And I love working with seniors. It was very fun.”

She said the most rewarding thing was finding out about the people and places in Pine City from Anderson. “She knew the history of everything,” Christensen said. “It was great. You learned a lot.”

One of those sites was the Rural School in Pine City. “I went to a school like that,” said Anderson. “You didn’t think much of it, because it was the only school available.

“We’d ring the bell – Larissa liked the bell too,” Anderson said, pointing at a picture of the bell at the Rural School swinging in mid-ring.

Christensen’s favorite picture was an evocative shot of Anderson walking down the boat landing. “It was kind of raining that day, and I was able to get into position. I like it.”

“She’s very fun to work with. We have different ideas, different perspectives. We have totally different ways of looking at things, so we got a lot of good pictures.”

“Couldn’t have had a better partner. We had fun together. It was fantastic. It was a great learning experience – or re-learning experience – and it was as fun as could be to talk about things with a young person who was interested in hearing some of those things. We enjoyed it all,” said Anderson.

Schifferdecker said he was a fan of Christensen’s photo of jams and jellies displayed for sale.

“It really kind of represents the past of canning – it’s not something that we normally do today. And the plastic table, it’s kind of the meeting of the old with the new.

“It speaks on a lot of different levels, and I think that’s what art is supposed to do – inspire conversation, even if the artist didn’t necessarily intend that particular conversation,” added Schifferdecker.

Anderson also appreciated the picture, and the jams themselves.

“I bought one, and it was good,” she laughed.

The intergenerational art show will be open for viewing during the Pine Center for the Arts anniversary celebration on July 31, from 2-6 p.m.