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The Global Garage: a case study for memory and belonging
Wednesday September 23, 2026 11:45am - Thursday September 24, 2026 5:30pm CEST
Great places rarely emerge fully formed; they begin as experiments—small acts of gathering, saving, adapting, and making that accumulate into culture, memory, and belonging. This session uses the garage as a lens for understanding the conditions that allow experimentation, creativity, and connection to thrive. Whether post-war garage complexes in Poland or invention-focused spaces in the United States, these environments succeeded because they offered autonomy, embraced unfinished ideas, and welcomed participation without requiring permission.
In many ways, garages are the original sandbox cities: places where people test ideas, share knowledge, repurpose resources, and build relationships before those ideas ever become formalized plans or policies. They reveal how culture emerges not through programming alone, but through everyday acts of stewardship, ownership, and care.
What can cities learn from these environments? How can public spaces become places where experimentation is encouraged rather than controlled? What organizational structures, funding models, and stewardship practices create room for participation, adaptation, and collective responsibility over time?
Using a temporary installation of found objects as a shared sandbox, participants will explore memory, experimentation, and belonging through facilitated discussion and storytelling. Together, we will examine how cities can create the conditions for creativity, collective ownership, and long-term stewardship to flourish in public life.
Speakers
avatar for William H. Dodge

William H. Dodge

Cofounder | Artist | Design Principal, A Gang of Three
William H. Dodge is a multidisciplinary designer, public artist, and design strategist based in North Carolina (USA).  He is the Cofounder of A Gang of Three, a globally recognized multidisciplinary, socially focused arts, placemaking, and planning practice operating within an ... Read More →
avatar for Jennie Kovalcik

Jennie Kovalcik

Director of Operations, Public Sphere Projects
Jennie Kovalcik is dedicated to amplifying arts and culture in urban contexts and has spent her entire career facilitating community development. She facilitates community-driven connections that focus on the relationship between creative and culturally-responsive placemaking that... Read More →
avatar for Jacek Sosnowski

Jacek Sosnowski

Founder | Curator, PRPGND
Jacek Sosnowski is a curator and psychoanalyst. He specializes in contemporary art, focusing on issues related to imagined social structures, identity, or transformation through trauma, and the healing process. He is a designer of exhibitions, public space projects, and art-branding... Read More →
Wednesday September 23, 2026 11:45am - Thursday September 24, 2026 5:30pm CEST
  Sandbox City: the Courage to Experiment, art installation
  • global Y

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