For most of my adult life I have traveled and lived in different cities around the world, settling in each place for only a few years at a time. The result of this is, my life has always felt transient. I have never felt deeply connected to or invested in a local community. Since moving to the Adelaide Hills 5 years ago, we are now beginning to make deeper, more long lasting connections, but it is hard.
I feel deeply unequipped in knowing how to be part of a community. I grew up in a culture more focused on the nuclear family and individual success, as I’m sure many of us did. The idea of being both reliant on and supporting others in an interconnected way is somewhere between uncomfortable and scary for me. Even so, it is something I feel I want for myself and my family, to be part of something bigger and feel a sense of belonging. I’m just not sure how to lower the barriers I have built around myself as a result of the individualistic society I grew up in. I don’t know how to rely on or to receive help from others. I am much more comfortable doing everything on my own. Letting go of that control makes me feel very vulnerable.
Since settling in Adelaide Hills, navigating the initial stages of forming connections and fostering community bonds has proven to be quite challenging for me. There are times when I still feel the urge to retreat and start anew elsewhere. For me, my first steps into feeling more comfortable in community spaces has been to offer my skills in running creative workshops. Through this journey, facilitating creative spaces for others, I'm gradually beginning to feel a sense of belonging in our local area.
Sharing art is helping me to build community for myself and others.
Art Town Workshop
I want to share with you my favourite creative space I have facilitated: Art Town. This was a 3 day rolling workshop I created as part of the Dream Big Children’s Festival here in Adelaide. I built 20 cardboard cubby houses in different shapes and sizes. Over the course of the 3 day festival, the children who attended decorated ‘art bricks’; mini individual artworks that were then stuck onto the cardboard houses to create Art Town.
It was wonderful to see how space was used and the evolution of the art covered cardboard town over the 3 days. Each participant leaving their creative mark and enjoying the space together. It was a space for creativity, collaboration and play.
After the workshop finished, some of the houses were given as gifts to families who attended the event. They were taken home to continue being played with, which is a wonderful way to conclude the creative community space created during the workshop.
I would love to build Art Town again someday!
Art Invitations
Another way I have taken steps to engage with our broader community is by volunteering to organise art workshops for homeschooling families in our area. In 2023, in collaboration with another family, I began a fortnightly art and nature play gathering, called Art & Adventure. This became a lovely way for myself and my children to make connections with local families. Each fortnight I facilitated an art workshop for the children attending.
Many of the workshops were set up as ‘creative invitations’. If you’re not familiar with term, very simply, a creative invitation is when you arrange an inviting selection of art and craft supplies then allow children to create with just a simple prompt and minimal instruction. They can interpret the materials in any way they choose. The best part of this kind of child-led making is that there are no rules, there is never a wrong way to do something, it’s just about exploration, creativity and playfulness. I first came across this term when reading Barbara Rucci’s book Art Workshop for Children, which I highly recommend.
I chose to facilitate the workshops in this way to support the neurodivergent children within the group. We created a space that was relaxed but supportive, to allow children to engage in the activity in a way that felt OK for them, without the pressure of time or a fixed outcome. For those who required more support or instruction, I was there to help on an individual basis.
I hope these ‘creative invitations’ give you some fun ideas to try at home or within your community.
Moving Forward - Community Creative Spaces
Although I still at times feel deeply vulnerable putting myself out there, offering my time and creative skills to our wider community has helped me to begin to lower my barriers, make connections and feel invested in the place we live. Now I’m feeling open and able to do more, to offer more and also to trust in the support of others. The next big project I am launching into, is to work collaboratively with a co-op of other families to create a permanent homeschool community space where we can meet, run workshops and collaborate.
It’s not going to be easy, I have so much to learn about collective decision making and collaboration, but I’m excited to learn and grow.
Watch this space!
If you are wanting to delve into this topic of running workshops and building community spaces, here are a few articles I found interesting:
This article defines what ‘community’ means and how it can be used for social change: What is community and why is it important?
Thanks for reading.
I am interested in the cardboard houses.
Were these premade items? Or created by individuals?
If you created these spaces, is there a tutorial available?
thanks all