Breaking ground on community placemaking

The+Moscow+Farmers+Market+will+be+the+location+of+the+upcoming+food+drive

The Moscow Farmer’s Market will be the location of the upcoming food drive

The tagline reads: “How do we create places of meaning? What makes public spaces unique?” These were a few of the questions on the agenda for Moscow’s Community Placemaking workshop and Panel taking place today.

Placemaking is an approach to planning and management of a public space emphasizing a local community, with an end goal of creating a public space that promotes happiness and wellbeing, according to projectforpublicspaces.org.

Kathleen Burns, Moscow Arts Commission art director, said the discussions will focus on how public art reflects a community.

The placemaking workshop will be held at the City Council Chambers from 1-4:30 p.m. Dinner and the conversation portion will take place at Maialina Pizzeria at 5 p.m. A Placemaking panel will be held from 6:30-7:30 p.m. at the Kenworthy Performing Arts Center, followed by short film screenings until 9 p.m. Films shown will include “Lost in Space: Found in Place,” “Dog Save the Queen,” and “My Dear Americans.”

The panel discussion features includes WSU and University of Idaho faculty.

Jolie Kaytes, associate professor for the WSU School of Design and Construction, said she brings her perspective as a community member, landscape architecture educator, and enthusiasm to the panel.

Kaytes said ideally landscape architecture is, “All about creating meaningful places that are responsive to communities and are beautiful.”

Much of her work is finding opportunities to connect students with the community in placemaking projects, she said. For instance, several landscape architecture students worked with Jefferson Elementary School with their school garden.

There are many ways to go about planning a public space, Kaytes said. Architects could either hand over a master plan to a community, or they could provide a community with fodder for thought, she said

She said discussing needs and wants for a space with a community “allows communities to take ownership from the ground up.”

Community member and panelist Nels Reese has taught architecture and interior design at the University of Idaho for the past 30 years. Although he is technically retired, Nels said he still occasionally teaches class at UI.

Deliberate placemaking is vital to a community, Reese said, and needs attention. If we don’t make public place planning a priority then we get a Walmart, he said.

 “We seldom go to Walmart for a picnic, or to just enjoy a few hours,” Reese said.

Reese points to The Moscow Farmer’s Market, Friendship Square, and the football games as great examples of community placemaking.

Karen Bubb, public arts manager for the Boise City Department of Arts and History, will also be on the panel. She said she has managed public art projects ranging in budget from $2,500 to $300,000 and hopes to bring “a national perspective of what is going on in public art” to the panel.

“(Community placemaking) is about collectively considering patterns of use, inspirational goals, and what is important to us,” Bubb said. “Each community is unique. The public spaces we share need to reflect these unique communities.”

Robin Ohlgren, chair of the Moscow Arts Commission, said the event is part of a larger on-going project to get communities thinking about how they tell their stories through public art.

“Anyone with new ideas (or no ideas),” Ohlgren said, “is welcome to join the conversation.”

All events are free, to RSVP for some or all of the evening. For more information, contact DJ Scallorn at [email protected].