Place Lab

The Ethical Redevelopment Salon is a membership-based, social-learning network and peer-mentorship club. The Salon fosters relationships through cross-city networks and cross-sector innovation, and provides members with the knowledge and support needed to create meaningful community change. From July 2016 to April 2017, Place Lab will host monthly Salon Sessions focused on city-building methods that depart from profit-driven interventions. Each Session will explore one of the 9 Principles of Ethical Redevelopment, analyze member projects and processes, and refine the underlying strategies of Ethical Redevelopment. This video, first screened at Salon Session #3 - Pedagogical Moments, shows highlights of member knowledge-sharing from Sessions #1 and #2. To learn more, visit placelab.uchicago.edu/ethical-redevelopment/

On June 22, 2016, Place Lab publicly introduced Ethical Redevelopment with a Public Convening. Held at the Logan Center for the Arts, this this interactive, theatrical event explored and showcased how residents, artists, entrepreneurs, developers, and civic leaders are joining forces to explore a more equitable approach to community transformation. The Public Convening was presented in three distinct acts. Act III features a Q&A session with Theaster Gates, co-hosted by Steve Edwards, and moderated by Dan S. Wang, Naomi Davis, and Shirley J. Newsome. For more information, please visit: placelab.uchicago.edu/ethical-redevelopment/ Please note: the Q&A session in Act III may contain mature subject matter, such as references to violence, commentary on mental health issues, and profanity. Viewer discretion is advised. For more information, please contact placelab@uchicago.edu.

On June 22, 2016, Place Lab publicly introduced Ethical Redevelopment with a Public Convening. Held at the Logan Center for the Arts, this this interactive, theatrical event explored and showcased how residents, artists, entrepreneurs, developers, and civic leaders are joining forces to explore a more equitable approach to community transformation. The Public Convening was presented in three distinct acts. Act I features interpretive performances by Arthur Wright, Asha Rosa, Coultrain, E'Mon Lauren, Ethan Michaeli, Kristiana Rae Colón, Nadia Sulayman, Peter Levavi, Rebirth Poetry Ensemble, and Stacy Patrice. For more information, please visit: placelab.uchicago.edu/ethical-redevelopment/ Please note: some artistic performances in Act I contain mature subject matter, such as references to violence, commentary on mental health issues, and profanity. Viewer discretion is advised. For more information, please contact placelab@uchicago.edu.

Principle 8 in the Principles of Ethical Redevelopment, "Constellations" speaks to the necessity of collaboration; a project taps into a particular kind of power when it refuses to be singular and assembles believers from disparate corners. Visit the Place Lab website for the full current description of this idea at placelab.uchicago.edu/ethical redevelopment/

Principle 6 in the Principles of Ethical Redevelopment, "Place Over Time" reminds that place is about the people who inhabit a space and the activities they engage in there; place-based work is about the aggregation of years of activity and organic development of relationships. Visit the Place Lab website for the full current description of this idea at placelab.uchicago.edu/ethical-redevelopment/

Principle 4 in the 9 Principles of Ethical Redevelopment, "The Indeterminate" encourages the suspension of certainty and acceptance of ambiguity, giving room for the work to offer solutions. Visit the Place Lab website for the full current description of this idea at placelab.uchicago.edu/ethical-redevelopment/

Principle #2 in the 9 Principles of Ethical Redevelopment, "Engaged Participation" talks about inviting others to get involved—neighbors, people with the same mission—and ways to provide access points. Visit the Place Lab website for the full current description of this idea at placelab.uchicago.edu/ethical-redevelopment/

Ethical Redevelopment makes the case for mindful city-building. By utilizing cross-city networks and cross-sector innovation, Ethical Redevelopment encapsulates a philosophy by which to shift the value system from conventional, profit-driven development practices to conscientious interventions in the urban context. It is articulated by an emerging set of 9 Principles that were drawn from artist-led, neighborhood-based development work on Chicago's South Side. Place Lab, part of the University of Chicago's Arts + Public Life initiative, is introducing the 9 Principles in their early stages of development in order to share and refine with other willing urban practitioners who believe in spatial equity for cities. On Wednesday, June 22, 2016, Place Lab will host a free and open public Convening about Ethical Redevelopment. To learn more, visit: placelab.uchicago.edu/public-convenings/

Established in 2014 by a Knight Foundation grant to Arts + Public Life at the University of Chicago, Place Lab is a team of professionals from the diverse fields of law, urban planning, architecture, design, social work, arts administration, and gender and cultural studies. Place Lab extends much of the team’s project management, design, programming, real estate, community building, and documentation acumen towards advancing arts and culture place-based projects on the mid-South Side of Chicago. In February 2016, Place Lab became a joint enterprise between Arts + Public Life and the Harris School of Public Policy to bring together artists, policymakers, faculty, and students to design and implement new approaches to urban development. Led by renowned artist and UChicago faculty member Theaster Gates, this partnership merges Chicago Harris’ Cultural Policy Center’s commitment to cultural policy and evidence-based analysis with Place Lab’s work at Arts + Public Life on arts- and culture-led neighborhood transformation. Learn more at placelab.uchicago.edu.

Sociologist Terry Clark and artist Theaster Gates discuss with students sustaining cultural scenes and the people, places, and structures that support them with during a meeting of the City, Society and Space Workshop at the University of Chicago on 2/4/15.

On June 22, 2016, Place Lab publicly introduced Ethical Redevelopment with a Public Convening. Held at the Logan Center for the Arts, this this interactive, theatrical event explored and showcased how residents, artists, entrepreneurs, developers, and civic leaders are joining forces to explore a more equitable approach to community transformation. The Public Convening was presented in three distinct acts. Act II features short lectures by Cathy J. Cohen, Carruthers, Kerwin Charles, Lisa Yun Lee, and Mabel O. Wilson. For more information, please visit: placelab.uchicago.edu/ethical-redevelopment/ Please note: some lectures in Act II may contain mature subject matter, such as references to violence, commentary on mental health issues, and profanity. Viewer discretion is advised. For more information, please contact placelab@uchicago.edu.

Principle 9 in the Principles of Ethical Redevelopment, "Platforms" states that a community needs a foundation that creates new social possibilities, a structure (often invisible) that incubates new economic or artistic prospects. Visit the Place Lab website for the full current description of this idea at placelab.uchicago.edu/ethical redevelopment/

Principle 7 in the Principles of Ethical Redevelopment, "Stack, Leverage + Access" reiterates the importance of strategy and infrastructure; demonstrating capacity permits access to greater resources. Proof of infrastructure is persuasive. Visit the Place Lab website for the full current description of this idea at placelab.uchicago.edu/ethical-redevelopment/

Principle 5 in the Principles of Ethical Redevelopment, "Design" states that beauty both comes from and belongs in blighted spaces, and that designed space can enhance a neglected area and illustrate the reverence and care residents have for the space. Visit the Place Lab website for the full current description of this idea at placelab.uchicago.edu/ethical-redevelopment/

Principle 3 in the 9 Principles of Ethical Redevelopment, "Pedagogical Moments" are moments of learning and teaching that unfold in all aspects of work. Consider the steps in each project that could be instructive. Visit the Place Lab website for the full current description of this idea at placelab.uchicago.edu/ethical-redevelopment/

The first Principle in the 9 Principles of Ethical Redevelopment, "Repurpose + Re-propose" considers the power of seeing possibility in the places, things, and people that surround you and the transgression inherent in doing so. Visit the Place Lab website for the full current description of this idea at http://placelab.uchicago.edu/ethical-redevelopment/

This video previews the emerging 9 Principles of Ethical Redevelopment as formulated by Theaster Gates and the Place Lab team, which is part of the University of Chicago's Arts + Public Life initiative. This evolving set of principles is drawn from artist-led, neighborhood-based development in Chicago's South Side. By introducing these principles in their early stages of development, the intention is to share and refine collaboratively with other willing urban practitioners who also believe in spatial equity for cities. Visit http://placelab.uchicago.edu/ethical-redevelopment/ for more information on Ethical Redevelopment (including a downloadable PDF of the principles) and the Public Convening in Chicago on June 22, 2016.

Highlights from the announcement of a new partnership between the University of Chicago’s Arts + Public Life initiative and the Harris School of Public Policy, which merges Arts + Public Life’s Place Lab with Chicago Harris’ Cultural Policy Center under the Place Lab name.

An exhibition focused on public art, public housing and public schools in Chicago and beyond.