Placemaking: Theories and Practices of Community-Building w/Joseph (11th/12th, Full Year)

This class will balance hands-on and theoretical approaches to reimagining and reinventing community spaces. We will study the history of utopian architecture, looking at intentional communities, cults, communes, and other projects, both good and bad, that aimed to create new structures of community. We will study artists who practice relational aesthetics and seek to create new imaginaries for how we might relate to each other. We will apply what we learn to our own community, taking on collaborative projects to redesign community spaces at Buxton and strengthen connections between us and the school where we all live and study.