Back in 2007, we at Urbanite were trying to find a way to encourage innovation in the city, and we knew one of the best ways to do that was to bring together folks from different disciplines and viewpoints. So we launched the Urbanite Project. We matched up unlikely teams of two or three, putting an architect with a neurosurgeon, or a writer with an environmental lawyer, and asked them to collaborate on a project of their choosing. To us, the end result wasn’t the point—although several projects had physical manifestations, including the 2007 “Black + White = Green” project, which brought together a multi-racial crowd under the banner of care for the environment during the inaugural EcoFest. It was the collaboration between these people from very different worlds—who might never have met had we not introduced them—that we thought was vitally important.
This year, we’re taking the project a step further, focusing on these ideas coming to fruition.
Introducing Urbanite Project: Open City Competition, a project of Urbanite, the year-long Exhibition Development Seminar at Maryland Institute College of Art, the D center, theMaryland Transit Administration, and the Baltimore City Department of Transportation.
We’re inviting self-organized teams to compete for $10,000 in prize money and the chance to implement their solution to a pressing city issue: the quality-of-life issues brought about by the construction of the Red Line.
More information HERE
