No Limits
by Ken Mayer
I’ve been a Place Game facilitator for about five years now, and a workshop we did recently got me thinking back on my experience. Recently, Omaha by Design partnered with Omaha Performing Arts and local schools to do a place making exercise with several groups of students.
The context of these Place Games was the performance in Omaha of the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, and Omaha Performing Arts wanted to involve area students in the history of jazz, New Orleans and the tragedy of Katrina. Rebuilding after a hurricane is a daunting place making task, particularly in a city as unique and wondrous as the Big Easy.
So, along with learning more about America’s art form and the city of its birth, why not a little taste of place making right in their own school yard? So we built a scaled-down version of the Place Game presentation. While the kids were drawing aerial views of parts of their school grounds, I was making photographs for them to sketch their ideas on.
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| Aerial view of the entrance to Skinner Magnet |
I had the good fortune to go to the Skinner Magnet Center where I talked a little about the history of jazz in Omaha, the Dreamland Ballroom and my late friend Preston Love, who lived in the neighborhood and went to North High - just across the street from Skinner.
We talked about the space they were going to work on - the entrance to their school; what they liked, didn’t like and how they would make it better. Out came the pencils and markers, and they set to work drawing their ideas.
What the kids did was quite remarkable. Ideas like better seating, better signage, landscaping, even a porta-potty. They covered the bases taking into consideration the image they wanted their school to have, way-finding for visitors, places so that they could socialize, play and enjoy the space.
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One student’s idea of what the entrance to Skinner Magnet could be
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This outpouring of creativity got me thinking back over years of Place Games and what I like most about being a facilitator. The grownups do the same thing. They don’t necessarily draw pictures but they come up with the ideas. I’ve been astonished on more than one occasion when a group of neighbors looks at an empty plot of land and sees a platform for astronomy or imagines a rock garden and climbing wall on a steep trash-littered slope.
It seems that for Place Game participants, the Skinner Magnet motto is in play – the sky is not the limit. If you want to see this creativity in action, give Teresa at Omaha by Design a call at 402.342.3458. She will help you set up a Place Game in your neighborhood and you, too, can be amazed and amused by what you and your neighbors come up with.
I’ll see you there.
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