This interactive workshop will educate participants in the fundamentals of resilient empowerment, and have them apply these principles to the conception of their own public design workshops. Operation Resilient Living & Innovation (ORLI+) will present attendees with a suite of community engagement strategies, designed to maximize collaboration with underserved populations and leverage local assets to grow a resilient society. To maximize the impact of this event, real-world scenarios will be incorporated, with the goal of presenting actionable outcomes for local at-risk communities. ORLI+ will conduct the following activities during the workshop: (1) ice-breaker to illustrate deficiencies of standard community design workshops, (2) presentation of model community workshop objectives and strategies, (3) presentation of case-study workshop scenarios by local/regional community leaders, (4) break-out case study analysis and workshop design by participants, and (5) presentation and discussion of proposed methodologies.

This existing workshop model promotes the expansion of a typical conference program, drawing connections between local communities and professionals, and visiting experts. ORLI+ believes this enhanced and focused interaction can serve as a model for increasing the impact of architects and designers in their local communities (and vice-versa), leveraging the conference platform towards actionable, resilient community engagement and development.

Civic Art Lab 2017 is the third iteration of the project, designed as a pop-up gallery and workshop space in the East Village at Avenue C & 7th Street. The lab will be hosted in partnership with Marc Norov and the Creations Gallery, a mixed-use community pop-up space, adjacent to a community-based bike repair shop. Our programming will continue to be low cost for full registrants and free for individual registrants. These workshops, talks, and exhibitions are designed by volunteer artists, designers, and teachers who lead investigations into diverse themes such as: creative re-use; urban agriculture; sustainable architecture; health & well-being, and environmental justice, to name a few. Civic Art Lab is hosted by GreenspaceNYC (www.greenspacenyc.org), a non-profit collaborative that develops and curates free educational programming, hands-on workshops, and public design projects that encourage dialogue, enliven public spaces, and promote the future of more equitable and sustainable cities. Get in touch: info@greenspacenyc.org