Project Outline
The Easthampton Futures Project is a series of facilitated community workshops that invite members of our community to envision and articulate the future of Arts & Culture for the City of Easthampton.
One of the central deliverables of this work is the creation of the next iteration of the Arts & Culture chapter of the City of Easthampton’s Master Plan.
In addition–above and beyond formal input into City planning processes–this work aims to forge and deepen relationships across Easthampton, and to create space for citizens to develop their skills around thinking about and designing the future.
Dreaming alone is easy–dreaming with other people, and developing plans to materialize these dreams is much more complicated. This is an invitation to practice.
In order to bring this vision to life, Easthampton City Arts and the Easthampton Planning Department are partnering with Dpict to design and facilitate the public workshops, and to organize and synthesize the work we produce together. The design of the public workshops will draw on the wisdom and experience of many people in Easthampton and beyond. We will engage in a robust and thoughtful process of community engagement and outreach–and we invite you to share this invitation with your friends and neighbors.
With excitement and commitment,
Sita Magnuson
Co-Founder, Dpict, Mass Collaborative and Fort Future
Member, The Value Web and The Community Experiment
Easthampton resident
Public Sessions Overview
Workshop 1
Sensing &
Discovery
When: Saturday, May 18th, 2019
Time: 10am-4pm
Through individual reflection, small-group dialogue and large-group exchange, we learn about who we are, what we want, and how we hope to participate in the making of our collective future. We will engage in an interactive and creative exploration of what is possible, and what it might take to get there. We will develop a draft vision that will lay the foundation for our future work.
Workshop 2
Prototyping
Possibility
When: Saturday, June 1st, 2019
Time: 10am-4pm
Utilizing similar processes of individual reflection, small-group work and large-group exchange, we will explore the nature and implications of possible futures. We will play “what if?” and evolve our thinking about what we want to put in place in Easthampton, and what our individual roles are in realizing it. We will revisit and refine our vision, and test scenarios for the future.
Workshop 3
Prioritized
Action
When: Saturday, June 22nd, 2019
Time: 10am-4pm
We will land our vision for the future of Arts & Culture in Easthampton, and engage in structured design work around goals and strategies. We will integrate the work from the previous sessions and document assumptions and interdependencies. We will decide how we want to keep this work moving forward, and lay a plan for a bold new model of civic engagement.
