The Art of Change: Exploring Neighborhoods in Transition

November 6, 2014

Image courtesy of Gene Anderson

Cultural researcher Sue Mark of marksearch.org and Anisha Gade, urban planner and design researcher, will engage in a reflective conversation about creative place-making efforts that can influence, empower, and inform community identity during periods of gentrification. In particular, Mark’s interdisciplinary project, Communities’ Crossing, will create historically- and culturally-informed interventions along San Pablo Avenue in the area where Berkeley, Emeryville, and Oakland intersect. This project is supported by PRINT PUBLIC, an innovative neighborhood initiative by the Kala Art Institute and multiple community partners. Mark and Gade’s conversation will be grounded in three larger questions: the connection between real-estate development and critical art practices; the impact of media representations of the urban and the architectural; as well as the creation of platforms that can function as living neighborhood archives.

Anisha Gade is a Masters student in City Planning and Architecture. She has a background in community development and communications. She is currently engaged in two projects: an ethnographic research project documenting demographic and land-use changes in Silicon Valley, and the second, a critical design/research initiative interrogating media representations of architecture and urbanism. She is currently acting as a consultant for Communities’ Crossing.

Sue Mark, with a BA in Philosophy and Linguistics and an MFA from the California College of the Arts, creates national and international performance-based projects exploring the intersections of lost history and cultural complexities. The marksearch team (collaborating with Bruce Douglas) situates their cross-disciplinary work along the evolving continuum of social practice art by creating sculptural structures for improvisational collaboration in public spaces. Since 2000, marksearch has collaborated with non-profits, community groups, students, historians, urban planners, and municipalities worldwide to create projects that move beyond aesthetic experience.

Communities' Crossing is produced for Print Public with support from Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, CA, and is was made possible with support from Cal Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Visit www.calhum.org. This project is also supported by the Oakland City Council and funded by the City of Oakland’s Cultural Funding Program.

The complete PowerPoint presentation can be viewed here.
Video of the presentation can be viewed here.

Readings and Resources:

Artscape DIY, Approaches to Creative Placemaking

ArtPlace America, Vibrancy Indicators

Lauren Markham, Gentrification and the Urban Garden

Kala Art Institute

marksearch

Related Blog Posts:

Living Archives: Filling Silences in History by Jaime Gómez
Exploring Neighborhood Boundaries and Transforming Community by Yuqing Nie
Opportunities to Create an Inclusive Sense of Place by Yasir Hameed