Growing Safe Spaces
Reflecting on community-centered engagement through a collaborative project of the Contemporary Art Museum in St. Louis and Creative Reaction Lab
Hey Changemakers!
Last month, we wrapped up our first-ever Community-Centered Engagement workshop, a 3-week virtual intensive where 19 professionals from across the US and Canada collectively explored ways to define community, unpack key principles of community assets and power, and discover strategies for building a more community-centered practice.
It was a fantastic experience, and I hope we’re able to offer this again in the future. As with every workshop I facilitate, I learned so much from participants’ experiences and questions — which is why my approach to community engagement is always growing and evolving.
Exploring Community-Centered Engagement through “Growing Safe Spaces”
At the end of our second session together, I decided to share an example of a project that would help us see real-life examples of some of the more theoretical principles we were discussing around community engagement and partnership (as with everything I do, I’m all about tangible actions and real world applications).
So I shared this incredible video (embedded below) of a community-based project in St. Louis called “Growing Safe Spaces,” part of a partnership between the Creative Reaction Lab (CRXLAB) and the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (CAM) called Collective Impact. This larger community program was established in 2020 by CAM and CRXLAB to identify, develop, coordinate, and collaborate in artistic interventions that directly relate to the challenges faced in their shared local neighborhoods.
In its second year, a group of residents and stakeholders from neighborhoods near CAM (Covenant Blu/Grand Center, Vandeventer, and The Ville) were guided through a 6-month program that included CRXLAB’s Equity-Centered Community Design™, gathering input from the community and visitors to the museum about their perceptions of safety, and working through a public art commissioning process.
We watched the video together, and then I asked everyone a couple questions to spark discussion:
What are some things you noticed?
What elements might make this project feel community-centered?
The group observed many aspects of this project that felt to be centering community, including its celebration of existing neighborhood garden spaces near the museum, the way that the project brought together intergenerational voices and perspectives, and the level of involvement and decision-making that residents had in this project. Community members seemed to be authentically valued as knowledge holders, experts, and project partners and not looked down upon as “people in need” or as part of “underserved communities” (which happens all too frequently).
The following week, during our final session, we were joined by CAM’s Director of Learning and Engagement, Michelle Dezember, to talk more about the project and answer some burning questions that we had. Michelle was able to share more about her own approach to building relationships with CAM’s immediate neighbors, including attending neighborhood meetings — and going to basketball games at the local high school! She emphasized the utmost importance of simple human-to-human relationships and connections, which outlast any single project like this. Michelle was also able to share more about how this project has lived on since its official wrap in 2022, and the ways in which CAM and CRXLAB have further worked with these and other area neighborhoods.
A huge thank you to Michelle for taking the time to join our group!
This project really resonated for me in various ways — in part, because I grew up in St. Louis and it’s also the city where our son was born, so my heart will always feel a special connection to this place. But also, the city of St. Louis lays bare so many of the complex realities we face in this country around race, policing, economic inequities, healthcare rights, and the polarizing political issues that tend to divide us. So I appreciate efforts that focus on bringing people together, listening to each other, and prioritizing cooperation, health, and safety — especially for a museum learning from its own past and located at intersections of many of these complex issues.
SHARE: What resonates with you?
I’d love to invite you to watch the video above, and share in the Comments below:
What you notice about this project?
What resonates with you?
What might make this feel more community-centered to you?
Are there any similar projects or programs where you live?
And if you share projects that feel particularly community-centered, I’d love to share them with our workshop group — and maybe use them as examples in future workshops.
Upcoming Workshop: Making Change Happen
My final “Making Change Happen” workshop is happening in just a couple weeks on May 21st!
This last workshop is offered at 6:00am Pacific time so that our amazing colleagues over in Europe might have a chance to get involved (this is 2:00pm London time, and 3:00pm Berlin time). It’s also a great time for those out on the East coast!
Over the past couple months, we’ve hosted two “Making Change Happen” workshops and had such meaningful conversations about our comfort with change, the different kinds of challenges we have in larger vs smaller organizations, and ways to combat negative stories we might tell ourselves. I’m really looking forward to exploring these themes again later this month, and offering up practical strategies that participants can take away with them and immediately put to use.
I’d love to have you join us for this fun, engaging workshop that explores how to be an effective changemaker in your work. And as a reminder, all students should register with the code STUDENT for a discount.
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And if you are curious to know more about some of the different kinds of services I do - including the creative work I do with nature and place-based arts nonprofits, have a look at my project page and services page.