Paste Your Place Kingston Arts Precinct

Paste Your Place is a two-day activation to bring people together for a collaborative and co-design workshop. On the first day, locals photograph their community and make a mural-sized collaged paste-up of the public spaces. Then, on a fun day of activation, portraits are taken of passers-by and added instantly onto the community mural.

With the support of the Suburban Land Agency and artsACT, Kate Matthews and I used Paste Your Place as a tool for community development and to visualise the public spaces of the future Kingston Arts Precinct. In early July 2022, we held a workshop to create a collaged photography mural of the neighbourhood. The following day at the Canberra Old Bus Depot Markets, we invited the community to join in on the fun and add their face to the mural. A survey was conducted where participants could share their hopes and ambitions for the community and what is missing from their future public spaces. The places and people helped stimulate thought about what is sacred and missing from the area.

Paste Your Place is a multilayered vision for the future, combining place, people and ideas to form an identity and legacy artwork for future reference and enjoyment at the development site. If you’ve got a place where people congregate, then Paste Your Place can provide an opportunity to integrate creativity, community and participation to build resilience and influence future decision-making.