The pop-up designs changing the city landscape

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/aug/03/pop-up-designs-architecture-london

Rowan Moore

The Guardian

3 August 2013

Text / 800-1500 Words

Pop-ups, temporary constructions intended to enliven public places, can often be used as temporary structures and events as marketing tools, and as camouflage for their larger and less charming permanent developments. But young architects in London, their talent and energy outrunning their employment opportunities, initiate, design and build pop-ups as glimpses of what a better city – more open, more social, more pleasurable, more surprising – might be

How One Weekend in Dallas Sparked a Movement for Urban Change

http://nextcity.org/features/view/how-one-weekend-in-dallas-sparked-a-movement-for-urban-change

Mike Lydon

Next City

20 April 2015

Text / Under 800 Words

A Dallas urban neighborhood was dilapidated with abandoned storefronts and offered no vitality for pedestrians. A group of artists and community members created Build a Better Block, in which local artisans and small businesses took over a vacant block and transformed it for a limited time to encourage the ingredients for more permanent urban renewal.

How Seattle Made Dark Alleys Safer—By Throwing Parties In Them

http://www.yesmagazine.org/happiness/how-seattle-made-dark-alleys-safer-by-throwing-parties-20150826

Araz Hachadourian

Yes! Magazine

26 August 2015

Text / 800-1500 Words

Alleys in Seattle were once places of illicit, illegal, and unsanitary activity. The International Sustainability Institute in Seattle began organizing music and art events to bring in people, which, in turn, cleaned-up the crime and garbage. As an urban development strategy, adjacent vacant storefronts re-opened for business and beautification could be seen in new gardens.

How Seattle Got Its (Arts) Groove Back

https://medium.com/bright/how-seattle-got-its-arts-groove-back-883392ada1de

Robyn Jordan

Bright Magazine

29 June 2015

Illustrations / Under 800 Words

Arts education programs in the United States are subjected to cutting for maintaining tight school budgets. Technology sectors in Seattle seek professionals who have been trained in problem solving skills and innovative idea generation. In response, Seattle Public Schools and the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture collaborate to promote equity in students’ access to the arts.

How to Build a Better Neighborhood

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/06/18/how-to-build-a-better-neighborhood

Tina Rosenberg

The New York Times

18 June 2014

Text / 1500-3000 Words

The Oak Cliff neighborhood in Dallas suffered from recession-closed businesses and crime. Then community members used placemaking, in which people shaped their own environment to improve the quality of life, and the concept of Build a Better Block, which was a pop-up event showcasing art, food, music, and local faire. The idea gives citizens a fresh look at the possibilities through which to transform the space in which they live, and it has attracted attention across the country and around the world.

A New Way to Commemorate Atrocity

https://psmag.com/social-justice/a-new-way-to-commemorate-atrocity

Tanya Paperny

Pacific Standard

14 April 2015

Text / 800-1500 Words

Memorials are being created at rapid rates these days, but they seem to lack a long-term effect on the public. The Chicago Torture Justice Memorials project seeks to change this pattern by putting out an international call for memorial proposals, wanting a variety in visions and a collective memorial, in order to remember the torture of black detainees and racialized police misconduct.

Public art to revive a community

https://whyy.org/articles/ideas-worth-stealing-public-art-to-revive-a-community

Eleanor Klibanoff

WHYY

24 August 2016

Text / Under 800 Words

Urban decay has left a "physical legacy" of past economic hardships in cities. Many cities across the world are now implementing programs that promote public art that rebuilds and reimagines neighborhoods.

How a declining German city is reviving itself from the bottom up

http://archive.citiscope.org/story/2017/how-declining-german-city-reviving-itself-bottom

Simone D'Antonio

Citiscope

30 June 2017

Text / 800-1500 Words

Oberhausen is long past its heyday and its railway station exemplifies this, its run down and filled with empty spaces. However, now the space is being developed into a cultural area as well as one for art and innovation, while also offering work opportunities to refugees to help with the renewal project.

Guatemalan women transform their town one brushstroke at a time

https://www.pri.org/stories/2018-02-07/guatemalan-women-transform-their-town-one-brushstroke-time

Sara Schonhardt

Public Radio International (PRI)

7 February 2018

Text / 800-1500 Words

In Guatemala, women are challenging traditional gender norms by playing a growing leadership role in their communities. Specifically, they are leading an initiative to paint local homes with patterns from indigenous weaving traditions. Not only are they making the towns more beautiful, but they are also demonstrating to young girls that women can do the same jobs that men can do.

Two Old Theaters, One New North Shore

https://www.wnyc.org/story/two-theaters-one-new-north-shore

Sophia Paliza-Carre

WNYC

11 April 2017

Multi-Media / 5-15 Minutes

To help develop the arts scene and also increase economic development in the North Shore area of Staten Island, one family formed a non-profit organization to renovate the St. George Theatre and build it up as a revitalized performing arts space. Since 2004 when the theatre was reopened, the area has seen economic growth, and data supports the idea that cities with arts and cultural resources make for healthier and happier communities.