In 2015 a member of the BCA team, Taru Kapadia, died unexpectedly. BCA was a long-standing outreach programme of Kew Studio and Taru had been a key team member ever since encountering the project as a participant, while recovering from illness in 2000. She joined the team immediately, bringing with her a unique cross-cultural perspective and an opportunity to enrich all our conversations and projects with her sense of design, education and spirituality.
We introduce you to her philosophy on the last page of this booklet. This project was designed with her son as a tribute to her memory. It was fully funded by her family to continue with the BCA work.
Purpose
With Rohan, Taru’s second son, with whom she ran a nursery school, we designed a project which we felt Taru had inspired and would have enjoyed knowing that her loving service to children and their families continued.
The project brought together a group of people to reflect on what their own mothers or mother figures had taught them and what they had been given as a lasting legacy.
People joined in of all ages, from a two-year old to eighty year olds. Some came alone while others came with family members to participate in celebrating motherhood.
Benefits
The calling up of feelings and emotions around the relationship of mother and child helped people to connect respectfully across the generations with others not usually met, and to share some very precious memories, finding both pleasure and healing.
People found renewed appreciation of their relationships and in some cases, the links made in this project led to further collaboration – notably on research into children’s books featuring disability in translation.
