Principle #3: make for place & public space
What it is
Making for place & public space is a design principle that we apply to Street Works in service to multiple characteristics of justice, solidarity, & loving care.
Place is the area where you live, however you define that — like your building, your block, or your neighborhood.
Practically, we describe public space as spaces that either have unclear ownership or are owned and managed by local or federal government — directly sustained with taxpayer dollars — and meant for public use. They are streets, parks, and plazas. (Click here for more.)
This design principle is important to Street Works because we believe...
Injustices often manifest in place, through policies, urban planning, & more. Public space is an entry point to pushing back. In its ideal form, it is a place where everyone belongs (financially, culturally, and physically), and it is collectively owned, stewarded, and designed. It is also a collective asset we can see, feel, and touch. While it doesn't always live up to its potential, it teaches us what is possible.
Goals
To prioritize place & public space, all Street Works projects aim:
Foster relationships in place.
Surface or understand where public space is not doing what it should or is insufficient.
Explore structures and feasibility of collective ownership models in order to develop them in the future
Help others access public space.
Learn how policy making on public space works and try to influence it.
All Street Works Festivals will also:
Create in public space.
Serve public space.
Why
We desperately need new presentation models for the arts designed at their core to serve justice. Unfortunately, status quo private spaces, like commercial galleries and nonprofit museums, are not set up to do that. Many have colonial histories. And history doesn't simply disappear over time: trafficking in heritages and remains of BIPOC still continues. Most cultural institutions also have abysmal records on racial equity in acquisitions and pay gaps. Who tells our stories shape our narratives and our consciousness— what we believe to be right and what we believe to be true.
Narratives and consciousness are built for many of us by proximity, with the people surrounding us every day in our homes & neighborhoods. In an emergency, family & neighbors in close proximity are most able to help one another, or spot signs of depression.
Place is also organized by local systems. Census tracts and regional boundaries dictate who and what we vote for, funding allocations, urban planning, policing, schools, and more. We think of public space as a conceptual ideal for designing new presentation models. It shows what glimmers when things are:
More accessible: open to all, and with fewer to no doors, stairs, and gates.
Created and maintained with collectively pooled dollars: like funded by taxes.
Open to public input: neighborhood residents have a right to voice their opinion about its design by participating in local governance.
A tangible example of collective good: we literally stand on it every time we leave our homes. Those of us who are jaded by democracy can build our sense of power by first influencing our own block.
In practice, public space doesn't always represent all of the ideals above. But it gives us something to aspire to, fight for, and design for, even if it might look pretty different from what exists today.
