I create projects to engage and catalyze communities.
This sometimes means working with 25,000 volunteer artists to transform New York City's taxis into a moving garden, building pop-up community centers, or creating a visual language for neighborhoods in transition. And I sometimes write about these things for publications like Next American City, GOOD, Outpost Journal, and Metropolis Magazine.
Some past project partners include The Noun Project, Etsy, CicLAvia, UCLA’s Department of Urban Planning, GOOD, UCLA's Center for Research in Engineering, Media and Performance, Creative Commons, LA Commons, and BurdaStyle.
Baltimore, 2012
The Demolition Dictionary is a glossary of terms and icons developed to communicate responsible practices for anyone living or working near a demolition site.
Baltimore, 2011
Equal parts public and private space, At the Table is a small gesture of friendship (and neutrality) in an overwhelmingly political context. A place to drink coffee, talk shop, do nails, edit resumes and generally do what needs to be done. Watch more here!
New York, D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, 2011
Hello Etsy: A Summit on Small Business and Sustainability is a weekend long series of hands-on gatherings across the US for small business owners who want to connect with their peers, learn the skills to find success and independence, and be part of the movement to build human scale-economies.
San Francisco, 2010
Cities ranging from Jersey City to Chattonooga participated in City R+D but the winning solution came from... San Francisco
Los Angeles, 2009
For LA 2.0, we gathered thirty urban practitioners, neighborhood advocates, and artists to brainstorm creative solutions for some of the cities most pressing issues. The winning solution of the day: temporary, modular public spaces. Brilliant!
Paris, 2009
We brought our post-it map to Paris!
Los Angeles, 2008
Together with GOOD, I created pop-up community centers (temporary community curated public spaces) in New York and LA that hosted national and local projects addressing public issues ranging from the National Resource Defense Council's Speak Now campaign to an original series on the value of sharing with Creative Commons.
Los Angeles, 2008
Townhall Potlatch, a salon hosted with Michael Hebb of One Pot addressed Los Angeles public transportation needs with local leaders and advocates. Participants were asked to bring a personal artifact that addressed the question, "how do you move through the city?".
New York City, 2007 (photo courtesy of Jez Coulson)
The Seed Project was an experiment in public interaction and interactive mapping. Working with over 4,000 volunteers we distributed 80,000 flowers to pedestrians throughout New York City’s five boroughs in a single day and then mapped the flowers' movement using a simple tagging system and a google maps mashup.
New York City, 2007
In 2007 Kyla Fullenwider co-directed Garden in Transit, one of the largest community-driven, public art projects in the nation's history. Over 25,000 volunteer artists -- mostly public school students from Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Queens -- participated in the year long education initiative which culminated in hand painting thousands of flowers on the city's taxis.
Other projects include A Public Forum on Public Space with Islands of LA and the Passport Project (co-curated with UCLA’s REMAP), which works with students to explore and document some of Los Angeles' most culturally rich neighborhoods. In 2009, through a grant from UCLA’s Department of Urban Planing, I curated a series of walking expeditions exploring street food and local culture for Trekking LA's 2009 season.