New Your City!
a participatory city-building project for all ages
header bar graphic

thank you! for being part of the New Your City projects...

who knows what will happen next.

update as of February 2008:

The group that owns the building where the Fox Point Library is located has forbidden us from buildiing another cardboard city there this year... they are worried about violating the fire codes.

We're not sure what we're going to do instead — if you have any ideas, or projects you would like to propose, get in touch with Ann or Jean. (aschattle (at) provlib.org or secretdoor.projects (at) gmail.com)

... and, in the meantime, stop by the library to say hi, to look at books or read magazines or check your email or research information or see your friends from school... something will probably be happening in March, we just don't know what yet!

old news

New Your City at the Public Safety Building!

everyone is invited to the celebration party:
Monday, June 11th, 5 - 7 pm

The Mayor of Providence and the Chief of Police will be there! Crazy! Don't miss it.

New Your City is now installed at the Providence Public Safety Building (otherwise known as the police and fire station!), the giant building between Dean St. and Rt. 95/service road, between Washington St. and Broadway. The city has been re-built by awesome helpers and volunteers as three different small clusters on the second floor at either end of the atrium — that strange steel-and-glass wedge that cuts through the PSB.

You can actually see the tallest towers when you're driving south on the highway or biking south on the service road (but don't look up for too long, cars are crazy around these parts). You can go in and see it at any hour of the day or night — since it's the police station it's open all the time!


Boston... and New Your City?

Tonya Salerno, who came to the very last day of this year's New Your City in Fox Point and built a Bike Shop with David and Francis, is an art teacher at the Italian Home For Children School in Jamaica Plain, right outside Boston. This spring, after being inspired by New Your City in Providence, she did a New Your City project with her students!

You can see their awesome mega-highway in the photo to the right. Here are some more pictures!


and now... party!

Tuesday, April 3rd, 2007
5 to 8 pm
at the Fox Point Library

We're having a party to celebrate the completion of this year's New Your City. More than 190 younger people and more than 30 older people, including toddlers, teenagers, neighborhood folks, elementary schoolers, homeschoolers, grandmas and grandpas, artists, teachers, parents, architecture students, housemates, girlfriends, partners, and all kinds of other friends participated. People came all the way from Worcester, Cambridge, and Jamaica Plain to help us build!

The party will be in the library itself, where we will break the rules many ways by having Snacks, and also by being extremely Loud, and Running around a lot as the What Cheer? Street Band brings us their awesome and energetic brass band and percussion music. Everybody is invited.

Don't miss it!

it's new --
and it's yours --

what is
new your city?

New Your City is a city that we build together. We start with our imaginations, many ideas, an open space, scrap cardboard, art supplies, and recycled materials.

Using lots of duct tape and hot glue, we create buildings, landscapes, and infrastructure, build vehicles, sculptures, and people, make murals, plants, and decorations. We talk the whole time, collaborating and compromising, and write or draw something about what we built each day in the city record notebook.

When it's time to stop building, we are amazed at the height and breadth of what we have constructed, at the variety and complexity of our collaborative creation. Our drawing, building, writing, and imagination have all come together to embody a shared, contested, and inspired vision of what a city could be.

New Your City is a free, public, and participatory project. Anybody with ideas about cities can come help build. Children and parents are especially welcome.

where?

at the Fox Point Branch Library:
90 Ives St (corner of Wickenden St)
in Providence, RI, USA (directions)

help build the city —

3 to 5 pm
Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays
March 1 to 30th, 2007

visit the city —

starting in March 2007:
Mondays 9 am to 5:30 pm
Tuesday 1 pm to 8 pm
Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays 1 pm to 6 pm

come to our final party!

a community celebration featuring the rambunctious music of Providence's own What Cheer? Street Band !!!

Tuesday, April 3rd — 5 to 8 pm
all city-builders, parents, helpers, friends, etc. are invited!

get in touch!

Jean Cozzens — coordinator
secretdoor.projects (at) gmail.com

Ann Schattle — library liaison
401-455-8112
aschattle (at) provlib.org

back to top

new your city in Jamaica Plain!

above: A view of the New Your City built by students at the Italian Home for Children in Jamaica Plain, MA.
below: A flyer made by New Your City Providence participants and local artist Mick Mahshie for our final party.

final party drawing city view panorama