Village Building Convergence: Making Commons

Natural Building at Trillium Charter school

City Repair’s Village Building Convergence is an annual ten-day placemaking festival that combines crowdsourced activism, creative community development, hands-on education and celebration.

Each year people come together to create benches, community kiosks, gardens, street paintings, tile mosaics, and more! Neighbors join neighbors as they bring to life the natural building, permaculture, and public art projects that they’ve been planning together over many months or years. We learn valuable skills for urban sustainability and social regeneration while celebrating the creativity and diversity of our wonderful city!

During the day, we have the opportunity to get involved with creative, community designed placemaking projects happening all over the city. There is building, gardening, art, and many other fun things to do and great people doing them with you!

Reclaiming Share-It Square 2010

Placemaking is the age-old process of investing our stories and values in our built and cultivated environment. “Our revitalized approach to placemaking empowers people to be responsible citizens. By using collaborative projects created in our public spaces to encourage positive interactions and creative solutions to societal problems we can reduce social isolation, a rapidly growing epidemic in all cities. These placemaking projects range from social structures, including benches and bulletin boards; ecological installations, such as community compost stations and living roofs; public art, such as street intersection murals and tile mosaics; and community networks, including cultural festivals and emergency preparedness strategies. All projects are designed locally and implemented locally with the critical support from volunteers like you!” said Sebastian Collet, VBC11 Placemaking Coordinator.

During the evening everyone gathers at a central venue for a night of wholesome food, presentations by leaders in the forefront of positive change, and exhilirating musical performances from local bands.

The central venue becomes a community hub and a village hall. Meet people from all walks of life who are coming together to learn about what it means to live a more connected, participatory life. Each evening event will include a wholesome vegan meal and an assortment of inspiring and elevating experiences, including presentations and storytelling from experts in the field of positive world transformation, musical or performance acts from acclaimed local talent or interactive community building exercises and workshops.

For more information: http://vbc.cityrepair.org