The Babushka Project: Mediating Between the Margins and Wider Community Through Public Art Creation

Abstract

This article discusses the theoretical and social contexts of a community art project that took place at a public housing estate located in Melbourne, Australia. The art intervention was aimed at increasing the residents’ health and well-being through the empowerment of their own cultural creations. Three sculptures in the form of giant babushka dolls were collaboratively designed to counter the negative effects of being eradicated from the dominant view of what constitutes culture. By placing art therapy practices within a human rights discourse, the project exemplifies how collaborative art making can act as a transitional space that mediates between marginalized communities and the wider community in which they are located.

Acknowledgments

Editor's Note: Bronwen Lucie Gray, MA, ATR, JD, is an art therapist, professional artist, and the Director of the Master of Arts in Art Therapy program at Whitecliffe College of Art and Design in Auckland, New Zealand.