Livestream or Recording:

Cyclical City: Stories of Urban Transformation

Jill Desimini is a landscape architect and associate professor at the University of Connecticut. She is trained as an architect and landscape architect and has practiced in both fields. Her current research investigates potential futures for abandoned landscapes, with an emphasis on climate and justice. She is author of Cyclical City: Five Stories of Urban Transformation (University of Virginia Press, 2022), From Fallow: 100 Ideas for Abandoned Urban Landscapes (ORO Editions, 2019) , and co-author of Cartographic Grounds: Projecting the Landscape (Princeton Architectural Press, 2016). Her work has also appeared in Manifest Journal, Bracket [Takes Action], JAE Online, A Public Space, LA Frontiers, New Geographies 10: Fallow, Journal of Urban History, Landscape Journal, Journal of Landscape Architecture, Scenario Journal, The Journal of Chinese Landscape Architecture, Places, as well as in book chapters on fallowness, urban wilds, land banks, and other related topics. She holds a Master of Architecture and Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Arts in Urban Studies from Brown University. Prior to joining UConn, she was Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and a designer at Stoss Landscape Urbanism, Atkin Olshin Schade Architects, Wallace, Roberts and Todd, and KieranTimberlake.

Livestream or Recording:

To Those Who Nourish: Farming and Environmental Health in Northeast Ohio

Artist and workshop organizer Imani Badillo will discuss the multi-year SPACES x Cooking Sections partnership, To Those Who Nourish. This project looks closely at the deoxygenated state of Lake Erie and the impact of harmful chemical fertilizers. A major source of life and water for the Cleveland area, UK-based artist collective Cooking Sections has partnered with SPACES to create a monument in the lake to farmers who committed to engage in the longer-term Non-Phosphorus Support Network. This group of farmers across Northeast Ohio will connect quarterly to discuss their own methods and efforts to move away from chemical fertilizers. This talk will provide some background for the project, introduce the group of farmers committed to the overall health of Lake Erie, and will explore how art can uplift the local community and pave the way for future change. 

Imani Badillo is a Puerto Rican, Black, and Alaskan Native artist, writer, and workshop organizer from Cleveland, OH. Imani’s work communicates environmental justice concerns using painting, fiber art, and bookmaking. Their sole goal as an artist is to use illustrated thoughts and memories as an invitation into getting into a right relationship with human and more-than-human others.

Livestream or Recording:

Making Art Work

Mac Love is the Co-Founder & Chief Catalyst at Art x Love, a creative agency based in Akron (OH). Mac’s work with @PLAY and Steps to Equity have been nationally recognized as a leading example for creative community collaboration. He recently presented the opening lecture on Equity & Social Justice: Community & Youth Engagement at the 2022 ESRI User Conference in San Diego, focusing on his work in Akron and Cleveland.

Mac Love will be giving a talk entitled Making Art Work. Mac will share the principles, methods, and tools that inform and guide the @PLAY and Steps to Equity projects and demonstrate how they are systemically shifting the way people, communities, and cities invest in the arts and their environment.