Mixplace Studio | The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage

This grant seeded the development of Mixplace Studio, a research and mentoring initiative that partners youth from West Philadelphia neighborhoods with architecture and design students from the University of Pennsylvania. The project is the Slought Foundation's response to what it sees as an ongoing lack of dialogue between cultural institutions and the communities they serve. They partnered with two organizations: local social service agency People's Emergency Center; and Estudio Teddy Cruz, based in La Jolla, California—a collaboration-based practice that integrates community initiatives with artistic and architectural projects. After a period of assessment, the planning partners identified and invited a cohort of young scholars to participate in the beta project. The team developed a curriculum, redesigned Slought's storefront as a learning laboratory, built a website, and documented the activities, all with the young scholars' input. "The educational aspect of the project is not supplementary; it is the very content of our project," notes Slought.