Engage Conference Design Booklet

Civic Engagement to Rebuild Communities Conference

Rebuild by Collaborating & Engaging

On behalf of the city of Seattle and the Seattle Central Library, we welcome you to the Civic Engagement to Rebuild Communities (CER) Conference 2022. We also extend a warm welcome to our speakers and panelists from across the country who have come here to share their vast knowledge and experience with our attendees.

Through the ever-present COVID-19 pandemic, we are especially facing challenges with social engagement and participation. The goal of this conference is to spread awareness about the importance of civic engagement in public spaces and for attendees to learn about ways to increase participation in communities on a local and global scale.

We would also like to thank our wonderful sponsors who have been extremely accomodating towards our organization and provided us with tremendous amounts of resources to put together this conference successfully.

Conference Schedule

Article: Civic Engagement in the Age of Media

Keynote Speaker: Rem Koolhaas

Community Tour: Seattle Central Library

Panel: Art Appreciation and Participatiory Installations

Keynote Speaker: Andres Mantilla

Panel: Reclaiming Spaces for People and Businesses

Keynote Speaker: Mark S. Pancer + Closing Note

Civic Engagement in the Age of Media

civic engagement as key components in community building and urban restructuring efforts.

Historically, during times of economic adversity, American communities have relied on social connections. As far back as 1835, Alexis de Tocqueville in Of Democracy in America suggested that civic engagement is inherently a part of American democracy. Mark Lilla supports this idea in his 2007 book, The Stillborn God: Religion, Politics, and the Modern West. However, this special nature and prerogative of who we are seems to be a matter of the past. In the last several decades there has been a shift in the traditional social structure of the American constituency, reducing the level of social responsibility or willingness to help thy neighbor. Robert Putman, author of the 2001 book Bowling Alone, argues that we are witnessing a noticeable decline in social capital which continues to hinder prospects of community building and civic engagement.

Shifts in the traditional family structure, technological advancements and mobility have uprooted social connections

in American neighborhoods, isolating community members from one another. We cannot emphasize enough how important it is to revitalize this engagement within communities. Without social capital, local level networks or grassroots initiatives have difficulty dealing with addressing poverty, education or unemployment in a broader context. Civic engagement, as a community building strategy, has been recognized as a prominent mechanism to produce social capital; leading more cities to adopt plans that promote civic engagement efforts in urban revitalization plans.

Over the past 10 to15 years, community advocacy groups have grown, among others, increasingly concerned with the environmental implications that impact the needs of future generations. In response to these concerns, city officials across the United States have adopted community and city sustainability plans that engage the community and plan for a better quality of life. Political officials across the board (federal, state and local) have acknowledged social capital and

A strong commitment to deal with societal conditions from a holistic or comprehensive perspective lends federal initiatives to place significant emphasis in broadening networks in community building initiatives, i.e. expanded community participation efforts and public private partnerships. Both vertical and horizontal network expansion of civic engagement bridges local initiatives toward more efficient networks by mobilizing the needed resources, information and capital to transform the impoverished neighborhoods of today into sustainable communities of tomorrow.

Coexistence of Digital and Real

With regard to the Central Library, Koolhaas has often talked of a perceived assault on books by the culture of digital information. “As other media of information emerge and become plausible, the library seems threatened, a fortress ready to be ‘taken’ by potential enemies,” he has written.

“In this scheme, the Electronic become identified with the Barbaric.” As Koolhaas has repeatedly stated, this positioning is not only untenable but unnecessary. “It is not a matter of either/or. … The modern library, especially in a cyber city such as Seattle, must transform itself into an information storehouse aggressively orchestrating the coexistence of all available technologies.”

At a fundamental level, this need could, of

“...city officials across the United States have adopted community and city sustainability plans that engage the community and plan for a better quality of life.”

course, be said to pertain to any building that has a website.

Yet, in Seattle, Koolhaas has attempted to find a new relationship between the virtual and the actual. This is clearly illustrated by the somewhat unprecedented containment of all books on a long ascending ramp and the centralization of all resources (digital, human and traditional) in a fifth-level “Mixing Chamber” — “where the chattering of 132 computer keypads adds a modern sound to the coughs and whispers of a library.” Koolhaas’s intent was to make the Central Library more than a building “exclusively dedicated to the book”; it would be “an information store,” where all new and old media would be presented “under a regime of new equalities,” in a building.

Enforced Interaction

If one takes a longer view of architectural and urban history, such visually organized spatial practices are not altogether radical or unprecedented. Pre-Modern perspectivally based architecture often provoked similar reciprocal relationships between individual buildings and the larger city. In these past “scenarios,” however, citizens activated the mobius-like blending between architectural volume and context through their daily lives.

In a sense, architecture began to lose this core agenda (i.e., helping define the larger collective urban experience through spatial/temporal phenomena) during the early part of the nineteenth century, when the forerunners to our contemporary media

forms were entering their infancy. Then, by the early twentieth century, film and photography had begun to dominate the cultural landscape, providing the majority of our collective “experiences.” We can almost hear the “first kiss” of modern media’s love affair with urban life in Walter Benjamin’s nowinfamous quote:

Early-twentiethcentury films by such artists as Dziga Vertov (Man with the Movie Camera, 1929) and Charles Schiller (Manhatta, 1921) embraced the city for all its visual, spatial and temporal potentials. Yet, as these new media forms became more present in popular culture, less “experience” seemed to be demanded in architecture and urban design. Over the last one hundred years planners have largely retreated from the phenomenological intrigue of the city to the safe haven of statistics and matters of public protection and management. Meanwhile, the majority of architects became singularly obsessed with architecture itself, narrowing the discipline’s potential and disengaging from architecture’s historical role as the media form through which we experience a sense of collective life.

The significance of the Seattle Central Library is that it is decidedly ambiguous about where the life of the city and the role of architecture should begin or end. Through the sectional layering of many visually connected spaces it formally orchestrates

many of the exciting qualities found when traveling through a city — the very qualities of simultaneity, vibrancy and voyeurism that Benjamin alluded to and that Vertov tried to mimic using documentary database structure, montage, and even multiimage collage. When a person engages an interactive digital installation (such as shown here with an installation of work by The Labyrinth Project), their experience is contingent on the actions of others accessing the same database simultaneously. The same can be said for the experience of a piece of architecture like the Seattle Central Library. In both cases, one doesn’t have to engage directly with another person to establish an expanded perception of being part of a larger collective body. But it is not an option to remain, or even to pretend to remain, fully isolated either.

Though Koolhaas’s initial training as a screenwriter has often been noted, his Seattle project suggests that this connection to media culture in fact now transcends the linear narratives and scenographic strategies of film structure alone, involving new references to the potentially more interactive strategies of the digital age. Most importantly, this engagement with contemporary visual culture has occurred not by reducing architecture to a mere backdrop for the digital, but by once again employing the spatial and temporal tactics natural to it to engage us more fully in collective life.

“...one doesn’t have to engage directly with another person to establish an expanded perception of being part of a larger collective body.”

Keynote Speaker: Civic Architecture in Public Organizations

Remment Lucas Koolhaas is a Dutch architect, architectural theorist, urbanist and Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. He is often cited as a representative of deconstructivism and is the author of ‘Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan’.

He was a journalist in 1963 at age 19 for the Haagse Post before starting studies in architecture in 1968 at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, followed, in 1972, by further studies with Oswald Mathias Ungers at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in New York City.

The combination of Koolhaas’s theoretical writings with his fondness for asymmetry, challenging spatial explorations, and unexpected uses of colour led many to classify him as a deconstructivist. He has completed various world renowned designs and stayed to true his ideals about modernity.

Rem Koolhaas

Seattle Central Library

Koolhaas’s intent was to make the Central Library more than a building “exclusively dedicated to the book”; it would be “an information store,” where all new and old media would be presented “under a regime of new equalities,” in a building “that combines spatial excitement in the real world with diagrammatic clarity in virtual space.”

The public library acts as a conduit for community change, as it is a space that can be used to express community pride, provide a platform for open dialogue, access to free community resources, and open channels for communication with community leaders. It remains the responsibility of public services professionals to meet the needs of community members.

“

How do you allow the maximum degree of individual freedom without contributing to the erosion of civic culture?

Community Tour: Explore Services at Seattle Central Library

Central Library’s program area is 362,987 square feet. Designed with growth in mind, the Central Library has a capacity for more than 1.45 million books and materials. All of those books move around the building in a hightech book-handling system.

For public use, the Central Library has more than 300 computers, WiFi Internet access, Wi-Fi printing, scanners, copiers and printers. You’ll also find private Skype rooms, music practice rooms, meeting rooms, quiet areas for reading and study, and tables for group work.

2-3:30 PM Friday, May 12 Seattle Central Library

Virtual Programs & Events

As we continue to work toward a return to normal services, some modifications remain in place. At this time, we are offering limited in-person, one-onone services, such as Tax Help and reference services. The Library does not currently allow in-person group gatherings, such as in-person Library programs and meeting room use. You can still attend many Library events virtually. Computers with internet access are available for you to use for up to two hours per day. You can reserve a computer in advance and available computers are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Free Wi-Fi is available to use with your own device at all Library locations.

Visitor Center

The new Visitor Center Exhibit demonstrates the Seattle Public Library’s commitment to the public. “Look” and “Learn” stations feature interactive and dynamic elements, encouraging visitors to experience the library anew. The design of the exhibit encourages participatory interaction from visitors as they engage with content celebrating librarians, libraries, and their indispensable role as a civic resource.

Panel: Art Appreciation & Participatory Installations

In this panel, these renouned professionals from diverse fields discuss the importance of public engagement with art. With the age of technology and virtual ways of looking at art as well as the multitude of content people are exposed to on a daily basis, it is important to process and connect with others in these spaces.

Architect and planner with expertise in the social and psychological impact of built environments.

1-1:45 PM

Friday, May 12

Level 3 Living Room, Seattle Central Library

Emerse Yourself in artistic interactions

Facilitator Eve Klein

Seattle Art Museum (SAM) Director.

Having served at the Phoenix Art Museum as its Sybil Harrington Director and CEO for the past four years, Amada brings with her expertise in the arts along with 30 years of previous expeirence in the arts. She focuses on bringing relavancy of art back into the lives of the public. “We live in a distracting world, so how do we get people to slow down enough to engage with art?”

Amada Cruz

David Khan

Executive director of FIGMENT & design consultant.

David led the team that created FIGMENT on Governors Island in NY Harbor in 2007, on the premise that everyone is an artist, and that art should be something that everyone should be able to create and interact with. The NYC festival has grown dramatically, and now welcomes 20,000 participants each year who engage with 250+ arts projects.

Andrés first joined the City in 2008 as a member of Mayor Greg Nickels’ community outreach team. In this role he served as a liaison to a number of neighborhood, business, and other interest groups in the Seattle area. He supported the implementation of over 165 neighborhood improvement projects that were part of the South Park Action Agenda and developed a more inclusive outreach model for minority-owned businesses and service organizations in South Seattle. As of May 2018, he is taken the position of Director of the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods, which was elected by the Seattle City Council.

Andrés sees a clear role for the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods to help lower barriers to civic participation and build equity in our communities. He sees the department helping Seattle’s communities do community-building as they define it and work to bring voices and perspectives to City Hall as decisions and policies are being made. “Now, more than ever,” said Andrés, “there should be power and agency in community building and collective voice. I am excited for the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods to be a partner in elevating these voices for positive change.” Through the powerful tool of community engagement and outreach, he sees a great deal of potential to elevate community voices throughout the City.

In this lecture, he speaks on the importance of advancement of public policy in an inclusive, equitable, and community building way and to build on the work that has already been done by the staff.

Keynote Speaker: Civic Leadership to Illicit Change Andrés Mantilla

10-11 AM

Saturday, May 13 Auditorium Floor, Seattle Central Library

“ there should be power and agency in community building and collective voice

Seattle Department of Neighborhoods

The Department of Neighborhoods was created in 1991 by consolidating staff from the Executive Department’s Citizens Service Bureau and Office of Neighborhoods, the Community Service Centers of the Department of Human Resources, and the Neighborhood Assistance Division of the Department of Community Development. We provides resources

and opportunities for community members to build strong communities and improve their quality of life. Through our programs and services, we meet people where they are and help neighbors develop a stronger sense of place, build closer ties, and engage with their community and city government. The Department’s mission is to bring local government

closer to the citizens by maintaining a responsive presence in Seattle neighborhoods, by responding to citizen concerns and complaints, and providing a communications link for neighborhoods on City issues that will have an impact on them.

Panel: Reclaiming Spaces for People & Businesses

In this panel, these renouned professionals from diverse fields discuss the importance of supporting local businesses and organizations that provide for the community. They will touch on resources on how to find young and POC entrepreneurs as well as how to encourage participation in the work.

Program director of Market Cities, a division of Project for Public Spaces.

12:30-2 PM

Saturday, May 13

Level 3 Living Room, Seattle Central Library

Support your Local Businesses First

Facilitator Kelley Verell

Chief executive officer & Founder of Intentionalist

Laura Clise is founder & CEO of Intentionalist and Senior Advisor to the Impact Finance Center. Laura previously led sustainability and corporate responsibility at Weyerhaeuser. Her company Intentionalist consists of a directory of small businesses aimed at consumers who care as much about whom they’re supporting as what they’re buying. She pomotes civic engagement though online platforms that support local businesses and community building.

Alexandra Clise

Founder of the Black Star Farmers Initiave & Advocate for POC-owned businesses

With the Black Star Farmers initiative,

reclaims black and indegionous relationships with the land, improving BIOPIC communities’ food sovereignty, and guides difficult discussions about racial inequality.

Marcus Henderson

He started this movement to use land for productive gardening to help communities support themselves through and after the pandemic

he

Keynote Speaker: Placemaking Connecting Communities

Dr. Mark S. Pancer is a Psychology Professor at Wifrid Laurier University in Canda teaching courses related to Citizenship and Engagement. Through his research, he has discovered that Americans have become increasingly disconnected from their fellow community members, and when this connection is lost, individuals begin to suffer. They experience poorer health, achieve lower academic and employment success, and are at risk for the development of a host of social problems. On a broader level, states and countries whose citizens feel detached from their communities show higher rates of various dangerous activities.

In The Psychology of Citizenship and Civic Engagement, S. Mark Pancer explores the development of civic engagement, the factors that influence its development, and the impacts of civic involvement on the individual, the community, and society. Pancer examines civic engagement over the lifespan and how the effects of early experiences and influences exerted by peers, families, and religious organizations shape adult involvement. Pancer also works toward a solution to increase active citizenship by identifying gaps in research and theory and outlining ways in which scholarly work on civic engagement can inform policy and practice, with the aim to foster growth.

Dr. Mark Pancer

2:30-3:15 PM Saturday, May 13 Auditorium Floor, Seattle Central Library

“ Americans have become increasingly disconnected from their community members

Moving Forward...

Thank you for attending the Civic Engagement to Rebuild Communities (C.E.R) conference.

Another huge thank you to our sponsors, Project for Public Spaces and the American Library Association, for helping us conduct this informative expeirence. Additionally, we would like to acknowledge the Seattle Central Library staff and the City of Seattle for hosting this event.

It is our responsibility to contribute to our communties in whichever way possible, whether that by studying the art of enagement, consulting local government to make change, design spaces that introduce collaborative environments, or even support our local businesses. There are several ways to go about creating a interactive atmosphere and it simply starts with a conversation.