The University of Cincinnati announced on Apr. 24 that its Garden of Refuge initiative brings together art, environmental practice, and community engagement to address global challenges such as migration and climate change.
The initiative is designed to explore how spaces can foster a sense of belonging for individuals who have experienced displacement or marginalization. Graduate student Fatemeh Rezaei, the inaugural Garden of Refuge Graduate Fellow, uses photography and video to connect her personal experience with broader social and ecological systems.
Rezaei said, “My personal story is inseparable from the way I documented the Garden(s) of Refuge. I know forced migration through my own experience. I know what it means to leave a place, to arrive somewhere new, and to spend a long time not fully knowing where you belong.” She added that photographing plants against a black background was intended so their presence would be “impossible to ignore,” serving as a metaphor for visibility within systems.
The project extends beyond Cincinnati; Rezaei has also been involved with the Garden of Refuge at TU Dortmund in Germany. She said both gardens differ in scale, climate, surroundings, and communities but share “the same commitment to care, connection and creating a space where people can gather.” This experience changed her perspective on belonging: “I began to understand it less as something fixed and more as something built slowly through care, attention and the relationships people form with a place and with one another.”
Rezaei also highlighted how the garden connects with women’s experiences: “A garden does not exist on its own. It needs ongoing work… That part feels important to me because women’s lives are also often shaped by this kind of labor… For many women…belonging is not something given easily. It is something made through everyday acts.” These themes were discussed during a symposium panel moderated by Kate Bonansinga from UC’s School of Art.
According to organizers, the Garden of Refuge serves not only as a physical space but also as an evolving system shaped by movement and sustained relationships among participants.
