DrSanne Mestrom

PhD, Hons, RMIT.

Sanné Mestrom is an Australian experimental and conceptual sculptor and senior lecturer whose work treats public art as a vehicle for embodied learning, social connection, and imaginative risk-taking. Known for combining modernist material sensibilities with interdisciplinary, research-led practice, she shapes sculpture and installation not only as objects but as invitations to participate in shared spaces. Her academic and creative orientation is strongly outward-facing, with projects that connect design questions to how different ages and communities actually use cities. Across exhibitions, teaching, and funded research, she consistently foregrounds play as a serious instrument for planning more inclusive urban futures.

Mestrom founded the interdisciplinary ART/PLAY/RISK Research Lab at the University of Sydney, which examines public art’s role in designing intergenerational future-cities. The project positions play as vital for learning, social interaction, and engagement, and it explores how public artworks can expand opportunities for play in everyday urban life. With a particular focus on “risk,” the research brings together creative practice and scholarly inquiry to investigate how children and other community members experience challenge, boundaries, and comfort in public settings. The project’s methodology integrates artistic making with collaborative research design.

ART/PLAY/RISK has been supported through a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) from the Australian Research Council. The work develops collaborative approaches to “playable” public art, treating sculpture as a testable interface between children’s perspectives and city planning assumptions. In this way, her career narrative shifts from the gallery-scaled sculpture practice to a broader civic role, where the outcomes contribute to conversations about child-friendly urban design. The research also reflects a commitment to intergenerational thinking, using play as a common language across ages.

Mestrom’s impact lies in her ability to bridge contemporary sculpture and public design discourse, demonstrating that artistic practice can produce actionable insights about everyday civic life. Through ART/PLAY/RISK, she has helped reposition public art as a contributor to intergenerational urban planning, aligning aesthetic decisions with how children and communities experience play. Her work encourages institutions to consider affordances, comfort, and challenge as design variables rather than incidental outcomes. This contribution widens the scope of public-art evaluation from reception and beauty to participation and learning.