Wagga Wagga (Wiradjuri Country) | Sept 2025 – Feb 2026
The Idea
Wonder Seekers was a community arts project exploring everyday awe and wonder across Wagga Wagga.
I designed the project to commission four local artists to act as “Wonder Seekers”, each developing a playful, process-led approach to uncovering the extraordinary hidden within the ordinary through bite-sized creative responses.
Grounded in the everyday, the project invited both artists and audiences to pay closer attention, look again, and find creative joy in overlooked moments.
In the Community
Wonder Seekers engaged the community through pop-up activations, spontaneous interactions and digital storytelling.
The work unfolded across parks, libraries, cafés, cultural venues and suburban streets — embedding creativity into everyday spaces.
Artists directly engaged 180+ community members through:
- anonymous love letters
- poetry interviews and conversations
- postcards delivered to letterboxes
- interactive public artworks
These low-barrier encounters invited curiosity, participation and connection in unexpected places.
Process
I led the project design, delivery and facilitation, creating a low-pressure, process-led model that supported sustainable creative practice within real life. Rather than focusing on large outcomes, the project centred on small, consistent creative actions embedded into daily routines. Artists developed bite-sized responses grounded in observation, experimentation and local experiences, while documenting and sharing their process along the way.
Fortnightly check-ins formed the backbone of the project, providing space for peer support, accountability and the sharing of works-in-progress. The model prioritised flexibility, accessibility and sustainability, enabling artists to build creative habits that could continue beyond the life of the project, while generating work for both public and digital engagement.
Outcomes
- Secured $6,000 in funding
- Commissioned 4 local artists
- Engaged 180+ people through direct interactions
- Delivered a public showcase event with 50+ attendees
Digital engagement:
- 11,095 views, 2,325 accounts reached
- 702 interactions | 11.6% engagement rate
- 345 profile visits, 45 link clicks
- Estimated 25,000+ total views across the project lifecycle
Impact
Wonder Seekers strengthened sustainable creative practice for participating artists, building confidence, consistency and peer networks.
For the community, it created accessible, place-based cultural experiences that encouraged people to reconnect with creativity, curiosity and everyday beauty.
The project resulted in a grassroots creative community grounded in connection, shared experience, and a deeper awareness of the extraordinary within the ordinary.
Gallery
Photography by Ash Smith
