Urban Culture Institute Blog - Urban Culture Institute

Agustina Woodgate of Kulturpark Berlin in Whitney Biennial 2019

3/2/2019

Congratulations to Agustina Woodgate who is featured in the 2019 Whitney Biennial. Agustina was a team member of the Kulturpark Berlin team just a couple of years ago. Kudos also go to Anthony Spinello of Spinello Projects in Miami, the master mind behind our outreach and grassroots fundraising campaign. We overcame great challenges along the way but prevailed thanks to the incredible support of an amazing community of creatives on both sides of the Atlantic.

Agustina ran the Kulturpark radio station during our Kulturpark project at the Spreepark, the abandoned theme park in Berlin's east. The newly developed master plan for the park envisions the first culture park in Europe––a vision we initially developed. She has been continuing to broadcast worldwide via her radioee.net.

Download the 2019 Whitney Biennial Press Release.

Boston Harbor Heroes Award for South Bay Harbor Trail Coalition

4/4/2018

Save the Harbor / Save the Bay bestowed its annual Boston Harbor Heroes awards at a gala evening held in the grand ballroom of the Seaport Hotel on March 29, 2018. Among others, the South Bay Harbor Trail Coalition was honored for its "vision, tenacity and commitment to connecting Boston's neighborhoods to Boston Harbor and each other." Under the leadership of coalition founder, Michael Tyrrell, the team of David Giangrande, Christina Lanzl, Ann McQueen, Tom Parks, the late Bill Pressley and his wife Marion, Candelaria Silva and Bob Wells envisioned the South Bay Harbor Trail (SBHT) as part of a larger trail network that connects the Southwest Corridor Park from Jamaica Plain to the Boston Harborwalk downtown and in South Boston. Buoys salvaged and reconditioned by the US Coast Guard serve as markers and a playful reminder of Boston's rich maritime history. Main goal is to reconnect communities divided by major traffic arteries via an easily accessible, multi-use bicycle and pedestrian path. The first of a series of SBHT Buoys was dedicated along the Harborwalk in Fort Point Channel in November 2008. Funding for public art planning along the trail was provided by the Edward Ingersoll Browne Trust Fund of the City of Boston. Other funders include the ISTEA program, MassDOT, the New England Foundation for the Arts as well as private donors. Overall construction of the SBHT is underway as of spring 2018.

About the South Bay Harbor Trail
The South Bay Harbor Trail Coalition, in partnership with Save the Harbor / Save the Bay, municipal and state agencies, partnered to plan and build the 3.5 mile-long, multi-use South Bay Harbor Trail which, when completed, will connect Roxbury, the South End, Chinatown, Fort Point Channel and South Boston to each other and to Boston Harbor.

The South Bay Harbor Trail is one of the most important and exciting initiatives in the city connecting our inland neighborhoods to Boston Harbor. The Trail will link people to the recreational resources of a revitalized Boston Harbor and to the economic opportunities of a prospering waterfront. Residents from Boston’s diverse neighborhoods will have the opportunity to share in a cultural exchange.

The South Bay Harbor Trail will provide an important link in the larger transportation network by connecting with existing streets and trails such as the Southwest Corridor and Melnea Cass Boulevard. It will also serve as a critical link in a citywide greenway, connecting trails from Fenway, the Southwest Corridor, Charles River Park, Broadway Bridge, Fort Point Channel and the Rose Kennedy Greenway.

The South Bay Harbor Trail Coalition includes community groups, environmental organizations, the City of Boston, property owners, developers, and residents. It is governed by a steering committee which is comprised of coalition members representing every neighborhood through which the Trail will pass. The Coalition receives organizational, fundraising, and technical assistance from Save the Harbor/Save the Bay.

The Coalition worked together with Pressley Associates, a Cambridge-based landscape architecture firm, and Design Consultants Inc., a Somerville-based engineering firm, to develop the engineering and design master plans that will link various completed segments of the trail into a contiguous, single trail system/experience.

Placemaking in Action: EPIC Making in the Classroom

3/15/2018

Wentworth Institute of Technology | Spring 2018 Faculty Showcase
Watson Hall | March 15, 2018

Wentworth Institute of Technology organizes the annual Faculty Showcase to celebrate and recognize the accomplishments of faculty. Fifty faculty showcased 34 examples of excellence and creativity with teaching, scholarship, EPIC, grants, sabbaticals, and interdisciplinary collaborations. Organized by the Provost Office and Learning Innovation & Technology, participants hosted information tables to illuminate services and resources.

Dr. Christina Lanzl, Adjunct Professor of the Department of Architecture and Director of the Urban Culture Institute presented Placemaking in Action: EPIC Making in the Classroom. The exhibit offers documentation, outcomes and insights in the power of interdisciplinary, collaborative learning. Surveyed are three seminars from the past two years that focus on placemaking and art-in-architecture, an investigation of urban placemaking within a hands-on learning platform that combines theory with the making of successful places on and off campus. Focus and outcomes are cultural mapping, idea competition and exhibition projects developed by Wentworth senior and graduate students (two funded by EPIC Mini Grants).

Architecture student Shuxin Huang, Dr. Lanzl's spring 2018 co-op student, assisted. Thank you to Don Tracia, Tes Zakrzewski and the entire Provost Office and Learning Innovation & Technology team for incredible support.

Lunchtime Conversation on Placemaking

3/13/2018

Christina Lanzl and Anne-Catrin Schultz presented a faculty lecture on placemaking, which introduced the Placemaking Manifesto, which they co-authored and issued together with Robert Tullis and members of the Boston Society of Architects/AIA Placemaking Network in fall 2017. Lanzl and Schultz highlighted placemaking principles outlined in the Manifesto by discussing a series of case studies from their professional practice.

The Lunchtime Conversation faculty lecture series is coordinated by Associate Professor Antonio Furgiuele, Department of Architecture within the College of Architecture, Design & Construction Management at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston, Massachusetts.

HUBweek Panel on Creative Placemaking

9/15/2017

HUBWEEK 2017 | Oct. 10-15, 2017
Join HUBweek to explore the future being built in Boston at the intersections of art, science, and technology. HUBweek will kick off with events taking place all across the city, and land on Boston’s City Hall Plaza, which transforms into a
first-of-its-kind festival site. Filled with 80 shipping containers, dozens of art installations, and 6 geodesic domes, The HUB is where thousands of artists, innovators, and creators will come together from across Boston, and the globe. Sign up for the entire festival or an individual pass, such as the panel:

Creative Placemaking
A View on Tactical Urbanism

Sunday, October 15, 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm
HUBweek – Red Dome, 1 City Hall Square, Boston, MA

This 2017 HUBweek panel is free and open to the public. Registration is required. Tickets are limited. Register here.

Moderator
Christina Lanzl, Director, Urban Culture Institute

Presenters
Julie Burros, Chief of Arts and Culture, City of Boston
Christine Dunn, Chair of Arts & Culture, Sasaki
Janet Echelman, Artist
Christopher Janney, Artist/Composer
David Nagahiro, Principal, CBT Architects – Master Planner of HUBweek's The HUB on City Hall Square (see rendering)

We are in the midst of a public art paradigm shift. Most cities struggle to afford investment in monumental public art and new high quality public realm designs. Often time, public spaces are missing the vital programs that aid in full activation potential.

Planners, architects, landscape architects, artists in collaboration with community members, cities, policy makers, private entities and grassroots organizations are working to transform these spaces through “creative placemaking”. The maker movement, tactical urbanism, readily-available tools of digital production, and other cultural drivers are steadily chiseling away at the prominence of iconic public art.

Discuss with us how HUBweek transforms Boston’s City Hall Plaza into a first-of-its-kind centralized festival site “The HUB”; how a curated art program activates the Rose Kennedy Greenway; and how a temporary flex space like “Lawn on D” becomes the new urban and hip place to be. Join our esteemed panelists from the HUBweek Change-Maker series, which showcases the most creative and inventive minds in art, science, and technology making an impact in Boston and around the world.

Hosted by HUBweek in partnership with the City of Boston and the Boston Society of Architects/AIA.

Register here.

Ridership Engagement Roundtable at Metrorail Congress Americas

6/28/2017

The World Metrorail Congress Americas took place at The Inn at Penn Station in Philadelphia on June 28 and 28, 2017. The conference surveyed strategic discussions related to light rail planning and management in metropolitan areas. Sandra Bloodworth, Director, MTA Arts & Design, Metropolitan Transit Authority in New York City chaired the roundtable, Ridership Engagement: The essential role of art and design in engaging your ridership and communities. Presenters included Katherine Dirga, Program Manager Arts Administration of MARTA in Atlanta GA, Elizabeth Mintz, SEPTA Director of Communications, Philadelphia artist Ray King as well as Caitlin Martin, Media Communications Manager of the Association for Public Art in the conference city. Christina Lanzl of the Urban Culture Institute’s contribution to the conversation focused on questions related to placemaking in transportation planning:

How can public transportation agencies work towards better services and policies in the U.S. that support placemaking and a high quality public transportation environment?
What is the future of digital applications in public transportation art and placemaking projects? Can an overload of visual and sound/noise stimulation deteriorate the ridership experience?

Lanzl laid out the benefits of an integral, holistic perspective and multi-disciplinary approach that leverages placemaking, the arts and culture to enhance abutting communities through collaboration. The goal is to improve quality of life and to create opportunities for neighborhoods, businesses, organizations and individuals/residents.

Fort Point and Seaport Forum

9/22/2015

Fort Point and Seaport Neighborhood Forum on the Arts, Culture and Planning at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston

The neighborhood forum of Boston’s historic Fort Point and the Seaport District at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) on October 22, 2015 focussed on the arts, culture and planning. The event was organized by Mayor Walsh’s administration in partnership with the Fort Point Arts Community, the Institute of Contemporary Art and the Urban Culture Institute.

The Fort Point and Seaport Forum brought together leaders, residents, artists and professionals from Fort Point and the Seaport as well as from other Boston communities for an informal conversation on neighborhood life and planning initiatives of the City of Boston.

ICA Executive Director Jill Medvedow welcomed the speakers and attendees, followed by a brief overview of ICA history and programs. This important cultural institution with a 80-year history moved to the waterfront in 2006. Contemporary art in all media—visual arts, performance, film, video, and literature—and educational programs foster an appreciation for contemporary art.

Jen Mecca, Chair of the Board of Directors introduced the Fort Point Arts Community (FPAC). Founded in 1980, FPAC has developed three artist live/work buildings at 249 A Street and at 300 Summer Street as well as the Midway Studios on Channel Center Street. FPAC hosted the 36th Annual Open Studios in October, complemented by two other open studio weekends every year in the spring and during the holiday season. FPAC also operates the FPAC Gallery, the Made in Fort Point artist store, and offers numerous other programs.

Christina Lanzl, co-founder of the Urban Culture Institute, gave an overview of her 20-year history in Fort Point and highlighted current projects in partnership with the City of

Boston, the MBTA and FPAC. She then introduced the speakers and facilitated the question-and-answer session following the presentations.

City of Boston presenters were Julie Burros, Chief of Arts and Culture, John Fitzgerald, Deputy Director of Imagine Boston 2030, and Rich McGuinness, Deputy Director of Waterfront Planning. The speakers introduced their plans and vision for Fort Point and the Seaport, followed by a discussion with attendees. The goal of the forum was to engage a group of
diverse community members for a joint conversation and to
further communications within the area and with the City administration. It also provided an opportunity for residents of both historic Fort Point and the emerging Seaport to meet each other.

Richard McGuinness shared his current work on the downtown waterfront and his insights on the series of planning projects he completed for the Boston Redevelopment Authority in Fort Point and the Seaport from 2000 to 2015. He concluded his remarks with lessons learned and inspirations drawn from a recently completed research trip to Seattle.

Julie Burros gave an update on the ongoing Boston Creates city-wide cultural plan, which is expected to build a shared vision for arts and culture for the first time in the city's history. Of note are her plans to update the BRA's Artist Certification program and to increase the number of artist housing units. To bolster the capacity of the office of Arts and Culture, a new planner has been added to the team in October 2015.

John Fitzgerald, the Deputy Director of Imagine Boston 2030, introduced the recently launched municipal urban design plan. The City's last master plan was completed 50 years ago. A robust community participation process is part of this initiative, similar to the cultural plan process.

Many thanks to the hosts and presenters, as well as Kelly Gifford and Kate Shamon of the ICA and Urban Culture Institute Fellows, Thu Ngan Han and Hilary Buskirk of Stantec.

The Mather School Green Space Improvement Project in Dorchester

4/20/2015

The City of Boston is the proud home to one of the oldest public schools in the country: the Mather School. This exciting Green Space Improvement Project will result in the creation of a permanent public art installation with surrounding landscape improvements. The permanent project will be located at the Church Street entrance of the building. The area is highly visible, very active and serves as an important bridge between the school and the surrounding neighborhood. The aim of the project is to transform the existing greenspace and its surroundings into a more welcoming, comfortable public site and functional school entrance.

A search to find artists/designers for this project is currently underway. Artists, designers or teams comprised of an artist and a landscape architect are invited to forward their qualifications for this exciting public art and improvement project by May 22nd. As this is a historic site with many uses, collaborative teams of artists and landscape architects or a landscape architect with expertise in public art are particularly encouraged to apply. Preference will be given to local and regional applications.

This project is a collaborative effort between the City of Boston's Edward Ingersoll Browne Trust (BF), the Boston Art Commission (BAC), the Boston Public School Department, the Mather School Parent Council, and the Art Selection Committee of the Green Space Improvement Project. Christina Lanzl of the Urban Culture Institute is facilitating the project.

A $200,000 budget is anticipated. The project will be funded in part by the Edward Ingersoll Browne Trust Fund, a public charitable trust administered by the City of Boston Trust Office. Three shortlisted finalists will receive $3,000 honoraria for initial concept development and presentation.

Deadline for submission of qualifications is May 22, 2015 at 1:59pm EST. The full Request for Qualifications (RFQ) can be downloaded here. Contact Christina Lanzl, Urban Culture Institute, with questions related to the project.

Dinner in the Open Room or An Austin Travelogue

1/13/2015

Christina Lanzl

Having lived in the northern parts of the world, some of my best memories are of delicious summer picnics at scenic locales with friends or family. Of course, ants and other critters can overshadow these outdoor idylls, turning mishaps into anecdotes, retold as memorable stories at future occasions. My passion for eating outdoors stems in part from the depravations of the urban dweller lacking the amenities of a balcony, patio or garden. Hence, being invited to a potluck dinner at Open Room Austin by Susan Lambe and her team at Art in Public Places during a visit was a dream come true.

On approach, the spot's visual stimuli triggered many wonderful associations. I reveled in richly layered memories of childhood years spent in the verdant Bavarian countryside, visualizing our family home’s big garden and my grandfather’s farm orchard, where we picked fruits and berries all summer. To this day, I relish the inimitable taste of freshly picked, sun-warm strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, and boysenberries or, roaming through the forest to pick wild blueberries for cakes and baking, lingonberries for preserves and chanterelles for dinner. Climbing up trees, I savored the crisp apples, juicy plums, pears and delicious cherries – my favorite – straight from the branches. Or how about those first radishes pulled from the ground and the carrots washed in the rain barrel for immediate consumption? There’s nothing like it.

These thoughts passed through my mind as I was entering Austin’s well-appointed, public living room in a small park, surrounded by young trees that have to grow for another decade before casting shade on hot days. Having chosen the amenities of the city, the cultural richness and urban creativity over my former rural existence, I cherished this possibility of sharing a comfortable outdoor experience with others.

Like a scene out of a fairytale, a long dining table covered with a white lace tablecloth invites to be seated. Fabricated in powder-coated steel, the delicate fabric being frozen in rigid metal adds to its wonder and charm. At the four corners of this imaginary room, elegant, seven-arm chandeliers in matching color frame the ensemble. Realized by Miami-based artists Rosario Marquardt and Roberto Behar, the design responds to my own perpetual desire to find harmony and sense of place. This surely is a setting I want to revisit over and over again, probably like many neighbors and out-of-town visitors who happen upon the Open Room in this newly built park next to a new neighborhood on the north side of Austin’s Lady Bird Lake. If Open Room was mine, the only thing I would add is a little hedge or a white picket fence at the park’s edge for more comfort and as delineation for passing traffic.

On this balmy, early winter evening the warming rays of the Texas sun provide perfect outdoor conditions for a social gathering. About twenty artists, architects, planners and residents had followed the invitation to join this evening of food and conversation hosted in my honor. Two photographers capture the scene, Philip Rogers is one of them, a brilliant photographer known for his portraits of artists, on leave from his native Maine over the winter. As I look at the faces in his photos, I fondly remember our shared stories of successes and challenges similar to those of other cities I traveled to.

Two artists at the table recently designed bike racks, engendering Austin’s reputation as a forward thinking city that supports sustainable and creative life styles, while fostering innovation in design, public health and leisure activities. A muralist looks to work on more public art commissions. Concern is voiced over an ongoing public debate questioning the expense of a public art commission in the form of a security wall at the nearby electrical substation. With the richness of conversation, the potluck dishes in the center of the table remain mostly untouched until someone begins passing a few bowls. Eating seems less important, here and now, though someone tells of recent barbeque feasts.

As the sinking sun paints a glowing sky, our conversation turns to quiet reverie. A vivid palette ranging from deep orange to lavender marks the end of the day. Birds are singing their last evening song. Calm and gratitude for this lavish display of nature makes me feel at peace with the universe. The air turns chilly, so we bade our goodbyes, feeling richer and happier for what we shared.