Year 2023-2024

This community art project worked with older people to forge friendships, increase confidence, stimulate minds, combat loneliness, and nurture creative skills.

We talked (a lot) and shared stories of treasured memories.

Together we discussed how gardens and nature can bring people together, just as our creative workshops brought us together, just as art can bring people together. We talked about art; what is it? And who gets to call themselves an artist? Can we just decide that we’re artists? Or do we need permission from authorities or a piece of paper that says so?

We researched and took inspiration from outsider artists, in particular Nek Chand Saini, who turned waste into art and created an eighteen-acre sculpture garden illegally and in secret over a period of several years. This area later became known as The Rock Garden of Chandigarh, and now attracts millions of visitors every year.

Using Saini’s story as inspiration, we worked with discarded materials like old picture frames and kitchen cabinets to recreate our fondest memories, associations, and impressions from nature.

We built ourselves a garden made of memories and stories, to be shared, and hopefully to inspire others to share.

In the end, we determined that it is up to us to decide whether we are artists or not. And we are. We are here, we matter, and we have something to say, and memories to share.