Olivia Gude
Abstract
Creating a safe space for expression through art can forge immense opportunity for meaningful communication and sharing of space between diverse inhabitants of a specific location. This account of the making of a community-based public artwork for the newly renovated Hilliard Apartments documents through pictures and stories how this mosaic installation facilitated the building of connections among old, new and newly returned inhabitants of this housing complex. The project explores space-remembered, internalized spaces, psychological and social spaces, and the actual spaces in which we live, learn and work by way of inhabitant participation and exploration of the architectural design history of the Hilliard Apartment complex, namely Bauhaus-education artist Bertrand Goldberg. In this way, the creation and installation of a series of mosaic pieces resulted in an intergenerational and multicultural common appreciation of the meaning of these themes.