BLUEGUM RESERVE PLAYGROUND - Badger Creek, 2024
Community-engaged permanent public artwork | Yarra Ranges Council
Bluegum Reserve began with a Yarra Ranges Council brief to paint three large timber trunks within the newly developed Badger Creek playspace. The themes had already emerged through Council's community consultation, particularly the community's connection to local fauna and environment.
I saw an opportunity to take the project further.
Rather than simply painting the trunks myself, I proposed turning the commission into a community-making project. I wanted local people, particularly children who would use the playground, to contribute directly to the permanent artwork. I wanted them to have ownership of the final work for years to come.
I developed a three-dimensional response based around three local species identified as important through the consultation: the Satin Bowerbird, Powerful Owl and Galaxias ornatus, (a small native fish found in the creek).
Working with Badger Creek Primary School and the wider community, I organised a hands-on ceramic workshop that more than 50 people attended. Children and community members made small sculptural objects inspired by the animals, their habitats and the surrounding environment. These were glazed and fired before being permanently incorporated into the artwork.
What began as a brief to paint three trunks became a permanent artwork informed by community consultation and physically made with the community.
That distinction is important... Community members weren't simply asked what they thought and then shown a finished artwork. Their ideas determined its subject, their hands contributed to its making, and their individual pieces remain embedded in a place they use.
A child can return years later, find the small ceramic object they made and tell someone: “I made that.”
For me, that sense of ownership is one of the most valuable possibilities of community-engaged public art.
Bluegum Reserve reflects an approach that has become increasingly central to my practice: listening to what a community values, looking for opportunities to deepen participation, and using creativity to strengthen people's connection to each other and to the places they share.
PROJECT DETAILS
Artist: Ali Griffin
Commission: Yarra Ranges Council
Location: Bluegum Reserve Playground, Badger Creek, Victoria
Year: 2024
Participants: 50+
Community partner: Badger Creek Primary School
Materials: Charred timber and community-made glazed ceramics
Outcome: Permanent community-engaged public artwork
