HOW WE DO WHAT WE DO
A shared creative goal brings diverse communities into collaboration, inviting people to show up, make decisions,
and imagine together.
Through the ITP process, participants practice what it takes to build community:
listening, dreaming of what's possible, and bringing those ideas to life.
We believe what we practice at every gathering can expand outward into communities and society. By building relationships, engaging differences, and creating together, participants rehearse the skills needed for civic life.
PHASE 1: WE LISTEN
We only go where we are invited, and we move at the speed of trust.*
Every place has community organizers, artists, and organizations already doing inspiring relationship-building work. We first meet those people and build our local team.
Our role is to listen to how we can serve and then act as force multipliers—sparking creative collaborations and partnerships across communities that open new doors.
PHASE 2: WE FORM BRAVE SPACES
We invite people into brave spaces-- opportunities to step outside their usual circles into rooms with neighbors who may look/vote/pray/afford differently than they do.
Everyone who enters is invited into relationship around something shared: a place and/or a text.
In Place Projects, that common relationship is with a city or neighborhood. People experience a place differently, but they share a connection to the place they call home.
Many of our gatherings also center a communal inherited text. By focusing on difficult texts instead of difficult people, participants encounter one another through reading, reflection, and creative response.
PHASE 3: WE CREATE
Many public spaces ask people to compete. We ask people to build something together.
Through theater-making (involving storytelling, movement, writing, music, visual art, etc.) participants deepen their understanding of one another while creating something collectively.
When people create together, they listen differently, discover one another's creativity, negotiate ideas, imagine new possibilities, take risks, and express themselves publicly.
While many artists keep their work private until it is finished, we keep the doors open. By inviting people into the creative process as it unfolds, rehearsal becomes an opportunity for community dialogue. Some of the richest conversations happen not after the work is finished, but while it is still becoming.
* Source: adrienne maree brown, Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds