Wollongong Art Gallery hosts Hiromi Tango's Healing Garden, an exhibition you could take the kids too or your grandma

It's been many years in the making, but Japanese-Australian artist Hiromi Tango's Healing Garden opened on Sunday with a mass of rainbows, flowers and vines all created with help from Illawarra residents young and old.

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A maker-table is part of the sensory exhibition for people of all ages to create their own addition to the garden.

"Shared experiences are such an important aspect of building community and bringing people together in a creative space, where they are able to connect in a different way through art-making is a powerful experience," Tango told the Mercury.

"When people are able to take a break from the busyness of daily life and just enjoy the moment of making things together, the stories start to flow. In sharing a little about ourselves and learning about each other, we discover our shared humanity."

Tango - with the help of co-creators Athena Cabot and Dushan Mrva-Montoya - connected with community through a series of reflective workshops, weaving vines, flowers, and creatures from vibrant tissue, wool and fabrics.

People of all walks of life, all abilities, ages and cultural groups used recycled materials donated to the gallery to make something wonderful under Tango's vision.

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"I had a very traditional upbringing in regional Japan, where nothing was wasted," Tango said.

"Clothing was always upcycled/re-used -- there are many traditional methods of making clothing or hand craft using cloth patches from worn-out clothes, or twisting/braiding yarn or rope from strips of fabric."

She also said using pre-loved materials donated by the community for the artworks added an additional "layer of memories and experiences" on exhibition.

Artist and educator Cabot said the most popular aspect of the community workshops was the "slow, calming and repetitive nature" of wrapping and winding the textiles into garden objects: "to a kind of meditation".

"For one of the workshops, I worked with a wonderful multicultural group of women and one beautiful conversation that came out of that session with lots of storytelling about everyone's favourite flowers and foods that come from their native home countries," Cabot said.

Meantime, Dushan added the exhibition would continue to bring together diverse groups through direct, tangible art making experiences.

Healing Garden will be on exhibition at Wollongong Art Gallery until November 20.

The gallery is free to visit and open from Tuesday to Friday 10am to 5pm; weekends 12-4pm.

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