When artists access streets of commerce

TY - ABST

T1 - When artists access streets of commerce

AU - Jerram, Sophie

PY - 2017/6

Y1 - 2017/6

N2 - THEME 4 - THE RIGHT TO LANDSCAPE AND DEMOCRATIC PRACTICESKey wordsUrban, Commons, Art, Community, AccessA contemporary citizen-run movement in New Zealand creates ‘urban commons’ by negotiating city retail sites for community and artistic projects. Drawing on practice-based research, as the co-founder of public art agency Letting Space and the Urban Dream Brokerage (UDB), this paper will examine the process of creating access to the city for a wider range of communities. By proposing to focus on commoning rather than the commons themselves, it can be seen that the habit of urban commoning can take place in private spaces.The UDB process has generated 65 projects in three cities over four years, utilising retail sites to present concepts that focus on non-commercial human exchange; funded by grants from private and public institutions. The criteria for presenting projects explicitly call for unique, contextual and engaging projects for spaces that must be physically open to all. Past projects range from a political hair cutting salon, to a mood bank, a Hawai’ian cultural centre and a retro games museum. The most enduring project brokered is 17 Tory Street, which has played host to over 400 events in the space of 4.5 years at a peppercorn license rate.Property owners are complicit in the creation of the UDB’s activities, and become co- creators in the process with the ‘enlivened city’ as a boundary object. In some cases they become promoters of commons by speaking of the city ”as a place where we want to come into town and don’t just want to shop.”“Artists have a space for their projects which encourages diversity, a sense of community and public interaction in our cities” the President of the Wellington Branch of the Property Council, Mike Cole suggested. The facilitators in the UDB process use an online decision making tool, Loomio to efficiently process decisions and governance. The panel has mixed investment in the outcomes: panelists include public funders, private developers, artists and independent urban agents.By suggesting commoning as a process and drawing from social impact research undertaken by the UDB in Wellington it is considered that urban commons need not always be in long-term or public sites. They are able to be temporarily developed in privately owned spaces. The UDB initiative links the occupiers and creators of projects and considering the city as a singular network of sites, building a culture of urban commoning.

AB - THEME 4 - THE RIGHT TO LANDSCAPE AND DEMOCRATIC PRACTICESKey wordsUrban, Commons, Art, Community, AccessA contemporary citizen-run movement in New Zealand creates ‘urban commons’ by negotiating city retail sites for community and artistic projects. Drawing on practice-based research, as the co-founder of public art agency Letting Space and the Urban Dream Brokerage (UDB), this paper will examine the process of creating access to the city for a wider range of communities. By proposing to focus on commoning rather than the commons themselves, it can be seen that the habit of urban commoning can take place in private spaces.The UDB process has generated 65 projects in three cities over four years, utilising retail sites to present concepts that focus on non-commercial human exchange; funded by grants from private and public institutions. The criteria for presenting projects explicitly call for unique, contextual and engaging projects for spaces that must be physically open to all. Past projects range from a political hair cutting salon, to a mood bank, a Hawai’ian cultural centre and a retro games museum. The most enduring project brokered is 17 Tory Street, which has played host to over 400 events in the space of 4.5 years at a peppercorn license rate.Property owners are complicit in the creation of the UDB’s activities, and become co- creators in the process with the ‘enlivened city’ as a boundary object. In some cases they become promoters of commons by speaking of the city ”as a place where we want to come into town and don’t just want to shop.”“Artists have a space for their projects which encourages diversity, a sense of community and public interaction in our cities” the President of the Wellington Branch of the Property Council, Mike Cole suggested. The facilitators in the UDB process use an online decision making tool, Loomio to efficiently process decisions and governance. The panel has mixed investment in the outcomes: panelists include public funders, private developers, artists and independent urban agents.By suggesting commoning as a process and drawing from social impact research undertaken by the UDB in Wellington it is considered that urban commons need not always be in long-term or public sites. They are able to be temporarily developed in privately owned spaces. The UDB initiative links the occupiers and creators of projects and considering the city as a singular network of sites, building a culture of urban commoning.

M3 - Conference abstract for conference

SP - 76

T2 - Landscape Futures

Y2 - 19 June 2017 through 21 June 2017

ER -