ABOUT

The Nest Project, Inc. is a nonprofit organization founded by Fine Art Photographer, Sculptor and Somatic Art Therapist Debbie Baxter. What began in 2016 with a self-portrait inside the first nest that Debbie built with her son, Zavier, has evolved into a global movement transforming trauma, loss and pain into collective healing.

Over the past 9 years, The Nest Project has constructed more than 50 human-sized nests, produced over 400+ portraits, and invited each participant to reflect on a single question: “What vulnerable part of yourself are you willing to hold?” Through these installations, photographs, and stories, the project continues to explore the intersections of safety, exposure, and visual art. In 2021, the project’s evolution was captured in NEST, a self-published collection of photographs and written accounts. Subsequent iterations have expanded the nonprofit’s reach and social impact from survivor-centered collaborations in Salem, Massachusetts, to a 2023 partnership with formerly incarcerated men in New York City, exhibited at the Weeksville Heritage Center in Brooklyn.

For The Nest Project’s newest chapter in Oregon, The Portland Nest has emerged in partnership with Washington County Police Department, Family Justice Center of Washington County, and Patricia Reser Center for the Arts, to create a new body of work that engages local survivors of domestic and sexual violence. On view April 3 – May 16, 2026 at The Reser, The Portland Nest is currently in production on site. Supported by an outpouring of community engagement through a successful 2025 Kickstarter campaign, The Portland Nest marks a continuation of the project’s mission to create spaces where art becomes a vehicle for awareness, prevention and connection.

The Nest Project has been featured internationally, with exhibitions across the United States and Asia, and in outlets including Le Monde (France), Vice, and New York Magazines’s The Cut. Through its integration of Fine Art and social practice, The Nest Project reframes artmaking as a collective act of healing, one that meets life with reverence and shared experiences of compassion.