““Sustainability is about the status quo, about keeping things in balance,” she says. “It’s not about repairing and making good; it’s not an active thing.””

https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/where-the-grass-seems-greener-australia-floats-sustainability-at-architecture-biennale-20180525-p4zhi0.html

https://architectureau.com/articles/australian-projects-to-hit-the-world-stage-at-venice-architecture-biennale/

Why must culture be at the heart of sustainable urban development?

“The Committee on culture of the world association of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) is the platform of cities, organizations and networks that foster the relation between local cultural policies and sustainable development.
It uses the Agenda 21 for culture as its founding document.”

“The goal of re-humanizing the city through culture-sensitive urban strategies is underpinned by principles and inclusive processes of access, representation, and participation.  In the context of defining a new people-centred and planet-sensitive sustainable development agenda, cities are transformative platforms. However, the transformative potential of cities has not yet been fully harnessed by international
agencies, national governments, or local authorities.”

“To create a new culturally sensitive urban development model, the role of cultural practices and values in sustainable development must be explicitly recognized, supported, and integrated into planning and policy in a systematic and comprehensive way. In the context of Habitat III and the implementation of the Global Sustainable Development Goals, this policy paper proposes ways to integrate and operationalize culture in the sustainable development of cities, and aims to identify pathways to include culture in integrated sustainability planning and implementation processes.”

[embeddoc url=”https://blogs.uoregon.edu/aad551f15flood/files/2018/05/Gentrification-Baltimore-2hqiwoo.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google” ]

I’ve been researching books and resources related to evaluation, especially museums and visitors. I’ve started a list of books and readings on the topic I thought I would share.  Please share any additions you  may have.

Debbie

Wendy Meluch, Visitor Studies Manual. https://visitorstudiesmanual.wordpress.com (free download. I would start here. Wendy is an exceptional evaluator. She created this resource with grant support. It’s intended to help museum staff and volunteers do in-house evaluation.)

Judy Diamond et al., Practical Evaluation Guide: Tools for Museums and Other Informal Educational Settings. (Rowman & Littlefield 2016)

Stephanie Weaver, Creating Great Visitor Experiences (Left Coast Press, 2007)

Beverly Serrell, Judging Exhibitions (Left Coast Press, 2006)

There is a section on evaluation in  Exhibit Makeovers, 2nd edition (Parman, Craig, Murphy, White, Rowman & Littlefield, 2017).

Hello Everyone in Community and Cultural Development,

I hope this message finds you well. We will be meeting at my house from 6:30-9:30PM on Thursday May 24th. We will go over the group study guide on the Google Doc together.

Attached is the link to the google doc for the study guide that Bill Flood sent out. I will be working to fill out the guide on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.

PLEASE HELP FILL OUT THE GOOGLE DOC STUDY GUIDE!!!!!

LINK:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yFfJUB3XHfQmYUdp-hr4q0Ed5LqkS9GPSpMVuVd5oSA/edit?usp=sharing

If we can all work together to complete this before Thursday we will be able to go through it together at the group dinner. We will also be able to ask Bill about anything we are unclear about on Friday afternoon.

My home address is 508 E 14th Ave, Eugene, OR, 97401. I will provide all food and drink.

If you have any questions feel free to text or call. (845)705-7499.

See you Thursday,

Rose

If you are interested in attending the group study session, please vote by midnight on Wednesday, May 16th. I will send out an email by the morning of Friday the 18th with the final date and time.

I was wondering if peers in the class would also like to work together on the study guide in a GOOGLE DOC? Please let me know and I can set one up, ASAP.

Kind regards,

Rose

https://doodle.com/poll/sep6hbkrmyqnribw

In the bustle of this past week, my mind keeps coming back to a reflection of cultivating and rejuvenating communities through creating sacred space. Many physical buildings act as such – a mosque, a temple, cathedral, meditation room, gardens, yoga shala, our homes, and so on. But how do we still find the same headspace we have in structures of sacredness when we are in chaotic places?

I think this is where intentional placemaking plays an imperative role. It sets the groundwork to allow for vulnerability, openness, and reflection for those who enter the space. Is the structure inviting? Whom do you want to enter? If you are restoring an already sacred space, how do you maintain the integrity of its solemnity? How do you maintain the integrity of any structure to reflect the culture around it?

To me, an important factor in creating sacred space is creating an atmosphere of a slowed pace, and physically allowing space for people to come as they are. Allow them to breathe, spread out, slow down. Breath is the teleportation into introspection.  If the place you create allows this open acceptance to meet people where they’re at, makes them feel welcome, makes them want to come back and bring others, then ideally they will start to learn how to find serenity not just in the walls of the structure you set forth. As a past mentor of mine once said, “you don’t have to be somewhere beautiful to find beauty.” I see a large part of my role as a  future community consensus developer as a storyteller and creator of a welcoming, inclusive space reflective of the culture, allowing people to freely and willingly enter, make it their own, and take it with them wherever they go.

A unique idea came to present itself when I first moved to Eugene from Portland. I was living in the Whiteaker district in 2005. The place I was renting was owned by a guy that started the last Friday Artwalk. We were walking through “The Whit”during a Friday early evening and I heard music playing. When we approached, there were people eating and dancing on the street. There was a band playing in a garage and next to the make-shift stage in the garage, was a giant plywood board. The board was drawn and divided much like a giant puzzle. I noticed that it was divided by properties. some had one, some had two. Each was decorated differently. Some looked like grateful dead motif’s, another like a vw bus, another had a blue bus that said “Further” on it. There were tie-dyed tiles, some looked just like the buildings and properties that they represented. Each neighbor, renter, even squaters had to decorate their tile and bring it to the event. The event was called, “The Whiteaker Block Party”.  It was the most real and meaningful stranger gathering I have ever been a part of.

Peace-out!

DougW

Thought that might get your attention. Check out this outrageously current application of Alinksky practices.

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/05/09/michael-avenattis-rules-for-radicals-218329

Bill