Healing Garden - Boroondara

‘Healing Garden - Boroondara’ was a special community artwork developed by artist Hiromi Tango, co-created with thousands of visitors to Town Hall Gallery over 195 days in 2025. 

The project explored the profound connections between art, nature and mental wellbeing. Using recycled materials supplied by the gallery, visitors were invited to create colourful flowers and add them to a special community garden. This gentle, hands-on process encouraged mindfulness, offering moments of calm, focus and connection while strengthening social bonds through shared making.

The materials provided included an extensive range of fabrics, shaped by Hiromi Tango’s research into ‘healing colours’ developed in collaboration with neuroscientists to explore the relationship between colour, emotion and wellbeing. 

First presented as part of the major exhibition ‘Seasonal Shifts’ in Town Hall Gallery between February and April, the artwork was relocated to the Hawthorn Arts Centre’s ‘Creative Playground’ space from May to October. Here, the garden continued to grow under the gentle care, dedication and creativity of Boroondara residents and visitors.  

Over 39,500 viewed ‘Healing Garden - Boroondara’ and more than 5,000 individual creations were added to the artwork while on display. 

Alongside free public making sessions for individuals and community groups, more than 150 local primary school students participated in a series of workshops led by local artist and facilitator Angharad Neal-Williams, extending the project’s reach through hands-on learning. 

Throughout its display, ‘Healing Garden - Boroondara’ served as a welcoming space for reflection and restoration within the everyday rhythms of community life, hosting story time, yoga, music performances and other shared experiences.

Growing the Garden

Community Creations Up Close

About the Artist

Hiromi Tango is a Japanese Australian Artist who migrated to Australia in 1998 from Shikoku Island, Japan. She has been a resident of the Bundjalung Country, Tweed Heads, NSW since 2014.

For two decades, Hiromi Tango has focused on the intersection between art and science, with a particular focus on health and mental wellbeing. Drawing on her own experiences of neurodivergence and anxiety, her installations and performances traverse the embodied self, the emotional terrain of our relationships with others, and the healing possibilities of art. She has collaborated with numerous scientists, health professionals and research institutions, exploring how various aspects of the art-making process can contribute to positive mental wellbeing.

Image: Photograph by Karina Pires