1. HousingWORKS – July 2015 27
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.

2. HousingWORKS – July 201528
“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

3. HousingWORKS – July 2015 29
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.

4. HousingWORKS – July 201530
“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.