DreamingSpaces
Designing spaces with artists, culture bearers, and creatives at the center to envision and build change for the future.
Dreaming Spaces is a community engagement practice used to enter into community, build relationships and partnerships, and identify the needs and dreams that are artist-led, place-based, and that strengthen the capacity and agency of our partners in securing spaces for creative place making, keeping, and belonging.
Through a series of design sessions, we explored how artists, cultural workers, and community residents could dream together to create a cultural hub at 447 Minna that meets the collective needs and desires of the SoMa neighborhood and community. Lessons learned from Dreaming Spaces informs CAST’s work in future real estate projects to ensure that our process of place keeping always centers the voices of art and culture in community life.
Learn more about the program from the artists, cultural workers, residents, and community advocates who participated in our Dreaming Spaces San Francisco Steering Committee in 2022.
Community Design Day in SOMA
On August 4, 2022, CAST and the Dreaming Spaces SF Steering Committee led a Community Design Day at 447 Minna, inviting members from their extended communities to translate their dreams into sketches and visualize how 447 Minna can be a safe, welcoming and inclusive space for SoMa residents and beyond.
Reimagining in Oakland
Launched in Oakland in 2020 during the pandemic, the first iteration of Dreaming Spaces brought artists and designers together in a virtual space to envision what could be done to create and share art in safe environments, free from disease, discrimination, and violence. Designers of various trades and expertise–including architects, engineers, city planners, and public health experts–were engaged to support and advance the artist “dreaming” process, along with community members to reimagine spaces for EastSide Arts Alliance, Piano Fight Oakland, and Betti Ono Gallery.
