This summer I’ve been working in collaboration with the beautiful Dawson Park Community Gardens as part of the Creative Gardens Project. Myself and four other artists from The Art & Nature Collective were paired with five community gardens around Dundee, funded by the Dundee Climate Fund 3.0. Over a six week period, I collaborated with the garden volunteers on a variety of colourful creations, all centred around Art, Nature and Community.
About Dawson Park Gardens
Dawson Park Community Gardens is a mental health orientated greenspace, run by volunteers and groups. These inspiring gardens provide a safe place for individuals to build confidence, resilience and community, encouraging less reliance on social services and organisations. The greenspace is split into two key gardens/projects; Chrysalis, a private, referral-only space, and Growing Chrysalis, which opened during the pandemic to meet a rising demand within the local community for the space to be accessible to the public .
Dawson Park Gardens are well-established, with the original Chrysalis project opening over ten years ago now, the gardens host a variety of wonders to explore including food forest, frog pond, composting area, kids playground, tea shed, butterfly house, plant and seasonal veg sales area, fairy garden and much more! It’s a real hive of activity! My workshops are just one among many activities that took place in the gardens during my time there, from yoga, to home-school visits, talks, and craft sessions.
What we did
I hosted six drop-in style art sessions, one day a week, over six a week period. We created bright, colourful artworks all centred around nature, community, and the gardens. I aimed to create a space that was safe and low-pressure. The volunteers could come and go as they pleased, so I tried to keep the activities fairly simple and adaptable to accommodate for this.
An initial brainstorming session lead to three key project ideas:
- The Rocks/Fountain Project – Adding decorated rocks to the unused fountain at the entrance to the gardens.
- The Butterfly Murals – Stemmed from an interest in bridging the two gardens (Chrysalis and Growing Chrysalis) using artworks. We created two large MDF butterflies, one for each side of the fence which separates the two halves of the garden.
- Mini Murals & Mosaic – Incorporating mediums other than paint, we created smaller works that were displayed alongside the larger butterfly murals.
I brought in materials and encouraged the group to create things that were colourful and positive, and to think about what Dawson Park, and nature overall, means to them. I also introduced the prompt “if your garden could speak, what would it say?” (myself and the other four Creative Gardens artists came up with this prompt to help tie the projects together).
The Rocks/Fountain Project
I primed rocks collected from the gardens and we decorated them with acrylic paint. The rocks were coated with yacht varnish for protection before being added to the sections surrounding the fountain. This received a lot of attention from children and families entering the gardens (which was very rewarding to see!) and is a project that can continue to evolve and be added to over time.
The Mini Murals
I created small, nature themed MDF shapes (flowers, leaves, bugs etc.). We decorated them to be bright and colourful; Most people used acrylic paints, while some experimented with mosaic tiling. The volunteers seemed to have a lot of fun with these shapes! At the end, they were coated with yacht varnish for weather protection and hung on either side of the fence running down the middle of the two gardens, alongside the two large butterfly murals.
The Butterfly Murals
The biggest part of the project! Two large MDF sheets cut into the shape of butterflies native to Scotland; A painted lady (the species housed in the Growing Chrysalis side of the gardens), and a peacock butterfly (because of their beautiful bold colours).
The symbolism of the butterfly was important to me in creating these pieces; Not only does it link to Chrysalis, the project name, but is also a symbol of freedom, rebirth, beauty, and transformation. The positive messages of the butterfly all felt very relevant to this transformative greenspace.
I primed and painted the basic colours and shapes of the butterflies onto the MDF cutouts. We then worked collaboratively to decorate the butterflies with patterns, drawings and inspiring messages about nature, community and Dawson Park.
Reflections
My experience at Dawson Park Community Gardens was a very positive one overall. I met many lovely people, and by the end of the projectI really felt like part of the community at Dawson Park Gardens. Furthermore, I learnt a great deal about how to structure and run art workshops.
It was a huge learning curve for me working collaboratively, especially because I’m so used to working on my own. I found working with others to be a delicate balancing act; between making my mark as an artist and showcasing my skills, while allowing everyone else’s unique expression to shine through in equal proportions; between telling the group what to do, and letting them follow their own interests. I learned that it can be helpful to offer a strong starting point for ideas to spring forth from, rather than leaving things completely open, as this can be overwhelming for some, leading to ‘blank page paralysis’. I found it was helpful to hear the ideas of others, to listen to what they wanted to create, but then to reflect on my own about what was realistic, and how I could offer my best to the group.
It was interesting to work with such a variety of age groups, people with all different backgrounds, interests and artistic abilities. This made coming up with a brief to suit everyone quite challenging, and one big lesson I learned is that you can’t please everyone. Ultimately, bringing such a variety of personalities together led to some really interesting conversations and outcomes. It was great to see so many unique, creative expressions come from the same starting point! We had lots of meaningful conversations while working on these projects and that was a big part of the value for me! Creating community!
Finally, I love that this project left ideas that will continue to evolve in the gardens beyond the residency and my time there. My time at Dawson Park was relatively short, and there was only so much we could do over six days, but it’s as if I’ve sown the seeds for new ideas and projects to grow from, flourishing in their own directions. It is an immensely rewarding feeling to know that I have been a part of this inspiring space, and I would love to return someday!