Experiential Museums Find New Ways to Sell Fun Even With Covid Restrictions

Pop-ups, temporary constructions intended to enliven public places, can often be used as temporary structures and events as marketing tools, and as camouflage for their larger and less charming permanent developments. But young architects in London, their talent and energy outrunning their employment opportunities, initiate, design and build pop-ups as glimpses of what a better city – more open, more social, more pleasurable, more surprising – might be

A Dallas urban neighborhood was dilapidated with abandoned storefronts and offered no vitality for pedestrians. A group of artists and community members created Build a Better Block, in which local artisans and small businesses took over a vacant block and transformed it for a limited time to encourage the ingredients for more permanent urban renewal.

The Oak Cliff neighborhood in Dallas suffered from recession-closed businesses and crime. Then community members used placemaking, in which people shaped their own environment to improve the quality of life, and the concept of Build a Better Block, which was a pop-up event showcasing art, food, music, and local faire. The idea gives citizens a fresh look at the possibilities through which to transform the space in which they live, and it has attracted attention across the country and around the world.

In 2013, Detroit filed for bankruptcy because of a poor economy. While the city’s industrial businesses have floundered, the art scene has thrived, bringing in new sources of income through art galleries and investments in contemporary art. This new art scene is one factor to measure Detroit’s recovery and prospects of growth for the future.

In the face of terror and war, art and history needed protection. A group of professors, activists, archeologists, and historians created a network to preserve and protect art and history in Syria.

Urban decay has left a "physical legacy" of past economic hardships in cities. Many cities across the world are now implementing programs that promote public art that rebuilds and reimagines neighborhoods.

In Guatemala, women are challenging traditional gender norms by playing a growing leadership role in their communities. Specifically, they are leading an initiative to paint local homes with patterns from indigenous weaving traditions. Not only are they making the towns more beautiful, but they are also demonstrating to young girls that women can do the same jobs that men can do.

While there is support among the Memphis government to remove statues of Jefferson Davis and Nathan Bedford Forrest, the Tennessee state government has passed legislation which stymied local efforts. In response, the Memphis government passed a law to sell public parks to a private organization and legislators established an organization to purchase the parks where the statues were located. Through this legal means, the statues were removed and this action was outside the state’s jurisdiction.

Alleys in Seattle were once places of illicit, illegal, and unsanitary activity. The International Sustainability Institute in Seattle began organizing music and art events to bring in people, which, in turn, cleaned-up the crime and garbage. As an urban development strategy, adjacent vacant storefronts re-opened for business and beautification could be seen in new gardens.

Memorials are being created at rapid rates these days, but they seem to lack a long-term effect on the public. The Chicago Torture Justice Memorials project seeks to change this pattern by putting out an international call for memorial proposals, wanting a variety in visions and a collective memorial, in order to remember the torture of black detainees and racialized police misconduct.