By Cindy Ornstein

Updates
The 21st Century Café Society project continues to move forward in a circuitous manner caused by tremendous learning at every juncture and progress on the many different initiatives that are part of the whole.

Engagement—We have been involved in planning a new, more formalized and resourced process for engaging younger adult community members. The working title for this effort is Creative Catalysts. After conducting planning meetings with our younger staff members and City employees, a survey and two focus groups (one with users, and one with non-users of Mesa Arts Center), we brought together a group of the under 40 arts and downtown activists to share the findings and get their input on process/structure for moving forward. We are applying for a large grant to fund this work (research with community and projects they wish to advance) and they were extremely supportive and excited by the prospect of additional support and resources to do the things they dream of doing, and endorsed a structure for administering the work.

Shade Sculpture—The panel met and selected the finalist to design the Shade Sculpture for the 21st Century Café Society. We have not announced the selected artist yet, as contracts are still being finalized, but will be doing so soon. We are extremely excited at the conceptual design of the selected artist and feel it will greatly enhance the comfort, visual interest and attractiveness of our community gathering place. In our next blog, we will share the artist and the concept designs.

Digital Kiosk—MAC’s design architect, Michael Tingley, presented initial designs for the interactive kiosk to the Core Committee. Seeing options generated a lot of important thinking about scale and trade-offs between the appearance from the street and the experience of the user, as well as how people relate to the space, use the space and the kiosk, and are drawn to approach the kiosk and discover what it is about.

//www.legacy.artplaceamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Contemplating-Questions [at] Creative-Catalysts-Session.jpg">//www.legacy.artplaceamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Contemplating-Questions [at] Creative-Catalysts-Session-1024x768.jpg" width="430" height="323" /> Participants in the Creative Catalysts discussion contemplate questions for sharing at the planning session.[/caption]

Challenges
Focus groups and survey responses for our Creative Catalysts project reinforced some concerns that have been popping up from earlier engagements and planning sessions. They mirror some original concerns of the ArtPlace panel about the type of interactions that take place on a digital screen versus a more analog or three-dimensional interface. We all carry screens with us all the time, and this may create a barrier for users to get excited about interacting with and creatively addressing the topics/questions posed within our project. We have been asking function to follow form, rather than the other way around. Looking at the initial designs for the kiosk reinforced our doubts. We are currently rethinking how we can work with an artist with the right skills to engage our community to rethink the form our project takes to reach its goals.

Recent Wins
We shared earlier that we won a competitive grant to work with partners in creating Mesa Up @ Nite, infusing artists into late night experiences during later hours at downtown retailers and restaurants. The project is now complete, and a tremendous amount of learning occurred as a result, as well as strengthening of our partnerships. The downtown arts community was galvanized by the process of working together on this project—a small grant vocally supported by downtown merchants and activists gave wonderful reinforcement to our power as a collaborative force. Just two weeks ago, the group decided, as a follow-up, to create a last-minute mini-event, a Parklet, in downtown on a weekday during lunchtime. A string trio performed surrounded by Astroturf, lounge chairs under tents, couches and bright decorations. With only short notice, the downtown community came out in droves to support the effort—it was amazing! This is a testament to the sense of community and close collaboration being generated by the work underway!

//www.legacy.artplaceamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/4.5-MU [at] N.jpg">//www.legacy.artplaceamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/4.5-MU [at] N.jpg" width="344" height="344" /> Promotional eblast for Mesa Up @ Nite events shows a playful approach and the involvement of diverse downtown establishments in this community effort.[/caption]

Insight
With its roots in engagement and feedback, and the focus on testing concepts and learning from failures or challenges, the work of creative placemaking is by its very nature likely to require changes during development. We must be able to adapt our thinking and our projects to respond to this learning. At the same time, the processes themselves develop our ability to be agile—to respond with more flexibility to both needs and opportunities. We will become stronger individuals and organizations as a result.