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FROM THE GROUND > The healing and unifying quality of art has long been

documented but never so powerfully evidenced as the From the Ground Up project at Brisbane’s Common Ground. HousingWORKS hears from a number of people involved in this epic undertaking.

There’s no way to describe Brisbane Common Ground’s From the Ground Up artwork and adequately capture the immensity of the project. Originally conceived in 2013 after the opening of the 146 apartment-supportive accommodation complex, it is 13 large canvases symbolically sprouting up through the building like a tree reflecting the diversity of culture and life experiences found in the building’s tenant community.

The 13 canvases are installed outside the lifts on each floor in a position that clearly identifies the floor to the tenant when stepping out of the lift. Each canvas has been positioned to align the main tree trunk with the canvases on the floor above and below it. A stairwell allows this viewing so that the alignment of the trunks gives the effect of a continuous large tree growing up through the building.

“It’s an artwork that literally goes from the ground up,” explains Natasha Rodrigues, the Team Leader for Supportive Housing for Micah Projects, the organisation that provides essential on-site support services at Brisbane Common Ground.

“It was created on the ground floor of the Brisbane Common Ground building with the theme of a large tree trunk, branches and foliage growing up through the building,” she says. “Every canvas on every floor is the story of that particular floor, that particular level. For example, one of the canvases has an open black cage with birds flying out – escaping – and the person who did that painting was in prison for long periods of time before living in Brisbane Common Ground.”

The seeds for the project were sewn shortly after the building’s opening. Many of the tenants and stakeholders agreed that, although the building was state of the art, something that reflected the building’s values – social inclusion, creating partnerships and integrating tenants into the neighbourhood – was missing. Micah Projects CEO, Karyn Walsh, encouraged the tenants to come up with something that expressed those attributes.

“The tenants deserve a great deal of credit,’ says Natasha Rodrigues. “But Karyn was the one who said, ‘Let’s do something – what can we do?’ She sourced the funding for us [from private donors and government support] and she also hired John Fitz-Walter to mentor the tenants.”

To shift the project’s trajectory from idea to something more tangible, Karyn was able to secure funding from Micah Projects’ board; and the Department of Communities, Child Safety and Disability Services Queensland, as part of the Queensland Community Care Services. Funding was also secured from the Federal Government’s Commonwealth Home and Community Care program.

“School Art Supplies and Speedy School Supplies were also fantastic with the support they gave us in supplying the actual canvases, the paints, the brushes… everything!” continues Natasha. “It was an enormous amount of support that wouldn’t have seen the project come to fruition if we didn’t have that, and Karyn deserves so much of the credit for that.”

With the funding secured, the next challenge became apparent: how to transform the concept into reality.

“The whole idea of how we would go about it came by just walking up through the building,” says tenant and one of the driving forces behind the project, Leona Wallace. “We really didn’t have a tree in mind until after we discussed the restrictions of space – the size of the canvases we were going to choose. I came up with the idea to grow a tree because I associated it with the growth of people. They come here from bad situations and, hopefully, their situations improve, and they do, so it’s that idea of growth.”

Under the guidance of John Fitz-Walter, the medium chosen for the canvases – in this case, collage and acrylic – ensured that as many tenants as possible, whether of an artistic leaning or not, could participate.

“We wanted to incorporate people in the building who weren’t artists,” says Leona. “Some people who thought they couldn’t do art participated with a lot of scissor work, and ideas as well. We had projects of just painting sheets of paper the colours of the trunk, the colours of leaves, and then all the leaves were cut out.”

(from the left): Leona Wallace (tenant/artist) John Fitz-Walter (artist-in-residence), Brendon Donohue (artist/resident), Ann O’Sullivan (artist/resident) Kenneth Pene (artist/resident) and Councillor Hellen Abrahams, Brisbane City Council.

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“We didn’t just use paint,” she continues. “We used real bark and we glued the real bark onto the trunk of the tree. Someone made a spider’s web out of string and we built a bird’s nest out of little twigs and things. We painted all these over, and we added jewels and little things in various places so it’s not just straight paint and paper and scissors and glue – there were other additions. We’ve even got some little curtains in the tree house.”

“Also,” Natasha adds. “When you look at it, you’ll see the number 13 canvas is the Milky Way. It has 146 stars in there to represent the 146 units of Brisbane Common Ground and every one of those stars was made by the actual tenants of these units. That was put into the community meals area where we get close to 40 to 50 tenants, as well as staff, that attend meals. So that’s become something that brings everybody together.”

Despite adopting an approach that enabled as many people as possible to contribute, there was still reticence on behalf of some to get involved, to the point of presenting the facilitators with a few serious challenges.

“Probably the biggest obstacle in completing this was getting tenants involved,” confirms Natasha. “There was a real effort to overcome a barrier of acceptance. There was a core group of tenants, and Leona was one of them, where they were very accepting of other tenants that came into that space or tenants who just wanted to sit and watch.”

Perhaps fortuitously, it was this hesitation on the part of some tenants that saw a more inventive approach emerge to fostering greater tenant engagement.

As Leona explains, “As we went along, we created a number of ways that we could bring in groups of people, like going up to the tenant community meal and having people who couldn’t make it during the day to our art group participate in there.”

Slowly but surely, the perceptions of tenants that were unsure about the project began to change.

“We continued to invite people,” says Natasha. “We continuously reminded people that we had a facilitator, that we were going to assist people if they found it difficult or they were not comfortable doing any of the artwork.”

“Quite often, people realised it was a non-judgemental and safe environment to work in, and more about inclusion than exclusion of people. That sense of acceptance was one of the most important things that really made the project work.”

“We welcomed people into the art room,” says Leona to underline Natasha’s thoughts. “Even if they said, ‘I just popped in to see what you’re doing’, and even if they weren’t 100 percent into the project, we took up their ideas.”

“We got a number of people who actually came in and made suggestions but didn’t do any artwork,” she continues. “They’d come in and they would just observe us for half an hour and

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then say, ‘This would look good here’ or ‘This would look good there’ and we used those things. And then, of course, there were those who were not artistic at all, who found that they could participate – even if it was just hanging sheets of paper or making something, a simple larger leaf or something. We used everything people made for the canvases – and many, many different ideas came in this way.

“The project also worked hard to make room for a more vulnerable group of tenants than those with simply a healthy dose of scepticism,” explains Natasha. “We have extremely vulnerable people who live in this building – there may be health issues, there may be physical issues and the use of drugs and alcohol.”

To overcome the challenges of incorporating some of the more vulnerable Brisbane Common Ground tenants, a number of simple, yet novel, approaches were adopted.

“Routine was very important for us,” notes Natasha. “So we made a point, no matter whether there were one or 100 people, we would still keep the routine of having the art class on a particular day and time, which was when it would be facilitated by John Fitz-Walter.”

“People also had 24-hour access to the art room,” she adds. “What some of them did during that period of time was just paint leaves or they would paint the bark, as Leona mentioned earlier. And then that was handed over the day they would have the art class, and that’s when they did some of the cutting. Basically, every piece of art that was painted or worked on in that 24 hour period was used on the project so people realised whatever they submit will be utilised in the artwork.”

Despite taking twice as long as originally planned to complete, the finished work was well worth the wait.

“I do a lot of building tours,’ says Common Ground Queensland CEO, Sonya Keep. “The artwork is something, I think, that would be people’s favourite thing when they come here to the building. I think until you see it in real life, you really can't appreciate how magnificent it really is.”

“Our building is the first supportive housing initiative in Queensland so it attracts a lot of attention from a broad range of people who are interested in what we’re doing and how we’re addressing homelessness,” Sonya continues. “When people get a chance to see that artwork, they are just absolutely blown away, and it really makes me proud of our building and our tenants, and what we’ve been able to achieve together.”

Apart from the achievements in terms of tenant participation, the project’s success has led to the formation of a partnership between Common Ground Queensland, Micah Projects and Queensland TAFE Brisbane.

Until you see it in real life, you really can't appreciate how magnificent it really is.

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“One of the artists is now enrolled in a Certificate III in Visual Arts at TAFE because of displaying that artwork and the calibre of that artwork,” explains Rikki Pieters, a Project Officer with Common Ground Queensland.

“The project also helped to consolidate an emerging partnership to collaborate on a three-dimensional public sculpture (The Cross-link Art Project) near the entrance of Brisbane Common Ground. When [TAFE Creative Arts Director] Carla Reading got the opportunity to meet the artists firsthand, and to view their works at the unveiling, it provided her with confidence that a quality community art piece could be jointly delivered by Brisbane Common Ground tenants and Queensland TAFE Brisbane students.”

As well as being a launching pad for a range of tenants, From the Ground Up has also done a power of work in dispelling myths about social housing tenants. As Sonya Keep explains, “It really tells a great story to other people who may not have had an experience of being in a building that does these types of things or had any interactions with people from vulnerable backgrounds.”

“It really helps give them a different feeling and view of people rather than what they might stereotypically think. It’s had magnificent power to change people’s minds and to give them a different experience.”

With the project completed and, by all measures, a stunning success, Leona Wallace enjoys reflecting on the project’s impact on her daily life at Brisbane Common Ground.

“There’s a lot, which, I think, the tenants have gained from being part of this,” she says. “It was massive. It took a long time and sometimes we felt we were never going to get there. We started from the ground and we didn’t know where we were going from one canvas to the next, and we developed the ideas on each particular canvas as we went.”

The tenants have gained a lot from being part of this because it was massive. It took a long time and sometimes we felt we were never going to get there.

“It’s a sense of accomplishment and community spirit. As a tenant, it brought a lot of pride to each and every one of us, even the people who didn’t participate because they couldn’t for some reason, or thought they couldn’t. So, I think there was a great sense of pride and it brought a lot of people together. We got to know one another, and, I think, that was really important, because now you can greet people around the building that you met by being a part of it.”

While the project has positively impacted Leona’s relationships with other tenants, it’s the people involved in the project that have now moved on from Brisbane Common Ground that Leona remembers with the most fondness.

“I love the little remembrances in it as well,” she says wistfully. “There’s one lady who was a Dutch lady and she did a squirrel on a branch, and I remember her every time I look at that particular canvas. And there are other people who’ve gone, who’d contributed and I can see them still there.”

Our building is the first supported housing initiative in Queensland so it attracts a lot of attention from a broad range of people.