North adams

About the project

What do residents of North Adams have to teach? What do they want to learn? We created a set of programs that collected, archived, and shared local knowledge using interactive installations, onsite interviews, a low-power mobile radio station, and community bike ride for the North Adams DownStreet Art program. We are dedicated to building the capacity of people to recognize the knowledge that they possess, creating frameworks to share that knowledge, and empowering communities to engages in systems of mutual support.

The goals of DownStreet Art (to encourage social interaction, support local communities, and reimagine public space) are all integral to our projects, which made this a natural collaboration. In collaboration with Mass in Motion, a local cycling advocacy organization, we hosted a bicycle ride that used visual spectacle and collective interactive experiences as tools to generate substantive dialogue about how communities come together and share knowledge, while promoting the community’s new complete streets policy and developing a community of riders.