a place for gathering

BACKGROUND The City of Greater Dandenong commissioned Fiona Hillary and Sarah Haq to create 'a place for gathering' in 2011. The commission was a competitive expression of interest with six artists selected to develop concepts. The brief was to create a work as a part of a civic space re-development in Douglas Street, Noble Park. The artists were to respond to the nuances of the redeveloped civic site and engage the local community in the development of the work. The result is a 16m strung neon text piece. The text was selected from a series of public engagement processes including a postcard project that asked people to identify what a place for gathering meant to them in their own language or any language of choice. Fiona and Sarah collaborated with Hugo Cran to develop a sound piece that creates a reflective, ambient element to the work. 'a place for gathering' was installed and launched in October 2013 and is a permanent part of the City of Greater Dandenong's public art collection. CONTRIBUTION 'a place for gathering' was created through an interdisciplinary collaboration ; visual artist, landscape architect and sound artist, that was selected through a competitive EOI process and actively engaged the local Noble Park community in the realization and development of the work. SIGNIFICANCE 'a place for gathering' frames the civic space in Douglas Street, Noble Park and through the sound work has the capacity to continue to engage the community through the re-commissioning of sound works.