We will chicago
As the first citywide planning effort of its type in half a century, We Will Chicago seeks to develop a people-focused vision for all aspects of the Chicago government using three guiding principles: EQUITY. DIVERSITY. RESILIENCY.
Each of these principles can be applied to nearly all challenges faced by Chicagoans, including transportation, economic development, sustainability, public safety, education, and other issues. These guiding principles can help Chicago create the first people-focused plan in the city’s history — one that prioritizes investment in families and neighborhoods, which will inform priorities for government programs and projects and guide future budget decisions.
Chicago's legacy as a world-class city continues to be diminished by systemic inequities that have undermined its success for decades. These social and economic disparities touch nearly every aspect of Chicago life and government.
Recent planning efforts in Chicago have been largely place- or policy-focused, limiting the City’s ability to comprehensively address systemic issues that impact different neighborhoods in different ways. The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting recession further underscore these issues and the need for Chicago, its leaders and its citizens to develop a more equitable and strategic path forward.
The City of Chicago, led by the Department of Planning and Development (DPD), will join its partners to launch a public engagement effort in fall 2020 to solicit feedback on the broad, overriding goals of We Will Chicago and the process for the initiative itself.
As part of this work, Honey Pot Performance has been selected as the lead public engagement artist to support aspects of this greater planning initiative.
HONEY POT PERFORMANCE’S VISION FOR PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT
Honey Pot Performance is inspired by the Fifth City model, a radical community experiment from the 1960s-1980s in Garfield Park. Their work was about scale, consensus-building strategies, and focusing on community as leaders, experts, and problem solvers. So is ours. We look at the lessons we can apply in our current moment moving towards more equitable neighborhood-based planning.
The artist engagement facilitated by Honey Pot Performance attempts to reach both the depth and breadth of the city. We will design a community-centered process focused on creative dialogue, interactive participation, and consensus-building. Our process will emphasize strategic thinking, patience, and agile imagination in city visioning, planning, and implementation.
We imagine working with a cross-section of emerging and established cultural workers and community organizers rooted in place. We will harness this process not only to support the creation of a people-centered citywide plan but to uplift Chicago’s neighborhood cornerstones who are foundational to change across the city. We believe change has to happen at the neighborhood level to be sustained.
We also take inspiration from this moment’s focus on mutual aid and collective care. We believe people and communities can create solutions if they can access the right resources to implement them. We will work to reimagine how communities can engage with city departments and civic institutions -- from planning, transportation, and public health to arts & culture, parks, libraries, and schools -- to foster a different kind of exchange and support. We will imagine together what this new city could be like.
CORE QUESTIONS
What do we want to keep? What do we want to change?
What is urgent right now?
Communities are experiencing planning fatigue. Why another asset gathering and planning exercise? What are the incentives to participate? What do they get back? What does reciprocity look like?
How do we position artists, organizers, residents, and other local stakeholders as experts, knowledgeable contributors, and problem solvers?
PROCESS PHASES
Our job is to ensure that the We Will Chicago initiative begins and ends with a people-first plan that represents and positively impacts all of the people of Chicago. Honey Pot Performance will work with a core group of artists and community organizers to guide the work.
Artist and organizer teams will be selected aligned with the 7 core pillar issues of the We Will Chicago initiative: lifelong education, housing, economic development, infrastructure + transportation, arts + culture, health, and environment, energy + climate.
Teams will engage with the community in a two-part approach. Teams in community anchor hubs will address issues in assigned neighborhoods throughout the city, and a mobile team will cover the remaining communities. Each team will have its own programming - workshops, conversations, design exercises, knowledge and skill shares, etc. - to activate the ideas and concepts that are most important to its community’s interests.
Following a period of learning, experimenting, making, and dialogue, each hub will generate an action plan and some form of creative output based on the core ideas, solutions, and recommendations that emerge from their time together. Communities will work with the artist/organizer teams to realize these outputs as creative work, series, or other public-facing actions.
TIMELINE
May-June:
Welcome, Onboarding, & Planning with Pillar Hub Teams
June:
Welcome, Onboarding, & Planning with Mobile Teams
July-September:
Public engagement programming
Teams submit community action plans
Sept-Oct:
Data Analysis & Recommendations to the City
WWC Contract Positions
Honey Pot Performance is contracting positions to implement the WWC Initiative through Summer. As positions become available, click on the links below to apply.
Marketing, Communications & Technology
Contact/Info for inquiries: jobs@honeypotperformance.org
Pillar Artist Teams
Mobile artist team
Project Documentarian Team
