LISTEN: Courses Work To Create Welcoming And Intriguing Urban Spaces
May 17, 2018 - Megan Kamerick
During the spring semester, professors with the School of Architecture taught two classes where students did projects around Albuquerque, and in collaboration with community members.
Katya Crawford, an associate professor in the Landscape Architecture Department taught the Ephemeral Landscapes for Social and Environmental Change Seminar. Her students created several temporary installations focused on mass incarceration, the border and school shootings. They also made a time-lapse video of people interacting with Cage, a recreation of a death row cell.
Michaele Pride and Catherine Page Harris taught Creative Placemaking For Activism. Their students worked with the community to create a pop-up structure that can serve as a gathering spot providing books, food, even work space.
Both classes urged students to delve into issues about urban space and how it can be more welcoming or engaging to the community as a whole.
In our segment about students and faculty doing research that may fly under the radar, Marty Adamsmith talks to Frank Blazquez, a recent history graduate who has a project called New Mexicans Told In Pictures that features people on the streets of Albuquerque who were formerly incarcerated, struggling with addiction or doing sex work. His work was recently featured in an article in Vice. He also has an Instagram page.
Guests:
- Katya Crawford, Associate Professor in the Landscape Architecture Department in the School of Architecture and Planning
- Catherine Page Harris, Interdisciplinary Assistant Professor, College of Fine Arts and the School of Architecture and Planning
- Michaele Pride, Professor, School of Architecture and Planning
- Frank Blazquez, recent UNM graduate in history,
