Convenings

Past Learning Exchange Reports:
Minneapolis, March 8–10, 2002

Andrea Assaf
2002
Open Space Session: Civic Space: What is it? How do you find it? How do you create it?
To what degree do others in Animating Democracy think of the goal as creating civic space?

Is civic space a physical space, or a practice? 

Tom Borrup, Intermedia Arts:  There isn’t much civic space in the U.S.  Civic space accumulates over time, has history to it; combines privacy and public engagement.  It’s physical, but also virtual; it’s perception ... Animating Democracy is part of a process of creating civic space as a practice; thinking about long-term impact, helping to create a culture of civic practice. It will take time to make it a contagious practice; it has to be renewed over and over again.

Who owns it?  Who manages it?  What is the initial purpose of a space, and how does it evolve?  Civic space is a space where, even though you might not be the owner of it, you have ownership. 

Publicly owned, with private commerce.  Consumer culture—places where we buy things as civic?  Example:  Mall of America. 

Western idea that you don’t need civic space if you have a lot of private space.  Example: Coffee shops or diners in small towns (or in the East Village, NYC)

When people can say, “You may own it, but I can say what I want here.”

Gene Dugan, Out North Contemporary Art House: Example in Alaska: A sports arena, publicly owned but privately managed.  Someone put up a banner saying “Soviet Scum, Go Home!”  It resulted in a court case, and they won on the basis of Free Speech.  But the library was deemed, by the mayor, as an inappropriate space to put up a Gay & Lesbian display.

What make up the aesthetics of a civic space?

Institutions of culture, such as museums, have no built-in obligation to be civic space, but are trying to re-create themselves as a place the community can come, to be a forum.  How?

Civic space is a place where people feel they can express themselves in their own way.

Site-specific work:  shifting the perception of what is civic space and what is not. 

Examples:  Cornerstone Theatre turning places of worship into performance spaces, and a theatre production, Zones, into participatory civic dialogue event.  LA Poverty Dept. performances in a former bank, financial center, retail shop windows.  Intermedia Arts working with the potential of the Greenway as civic space in Minneapolis.

Is civic space necessarily neutral or safe?  

It’s a place where people gather; people have to be able to hang out there.  How are people welcomed?  How do they feel comfortable?  If it’s a public area that no one uses, it’s not a civic space.

Youth are civic because they are not neutral; they are collective.  Collectivity as defining civic space.

Working with populations that aren’t welcome in most “civic” spaces.  A true civic space would feel safe for everyone.  Is that possible?

John Malpede, Los Angeles Poverty Department:  Parks are set up as safe spaces, but become safe only for those who control them.  Example:  A park taken over by drug dealers; then taken over by non-profit organizations given community development money; then park fenced in and patrolled by police.

Public space doesn’t always feel public; it can be mediated or controlled by behavioral norms.  Even though a space may be public, whose norms dominate may cause others to feel excluded.