THE 15TH BIENNIAL COMMUNITY BUILT ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE will convene in Davis, California from April 3rd to April 6th at The John Natsoulas Center for the Arts. The conference theme is: “THE ART OF COMMUNITY BUILDING.” It will bring together planners and designers, architects, artists, administrators, educators and visionary leaders in a unique opportunity to focus on doing this work, supporting each other and serving communities. Inspiring presentations by nationally renowned professionals, approaches to participatory design, hands-on materials workshops, concurrent community built projects, professional development, networking and organized play are integrated into the conference.
- Location:
- The John Natsoulas Center for the Arts, Downtown Davis, California
- Downtown Davis is one of the most successful small city downtowns in the United States. A University town, it has the most per capita bikes in the nation. Walking distance from The Arts Center are over 60 public works of art, an active farmers market, food and bike co-ops, co-op housing and a vibrant restaurant and entertainment district. The three-story art center has ample room to hold 100 people for plenary activities along with a number of breakout rooms and a rooftop sculpture area for breakout sessions and classes. April in Davis is usually warm, dry and wonderful so lots of opportunities to meet in the arboretum across the street and in adjacent green areas and to conduct community built projects.
- Community Built Model Projects:
- Community artists in our host city will be designing and building permanent community projects in Davis. These include a sixty five foot long pedestrian tunnel mural, four art benches, a native planting and landscaping project and a “City Repair” traffic intersection street mural.
- This will be a particularly special opportunity to learn participation techniques, new materials, and technical applications. Conference participants will have the opportunity to to join the artists and their work and during the conference
- Tours:
- Home to a wide variety of community built projects, walking and bike tours in Davis will include, Community Built Art Projects and the Transmeridian Art Walk, Community Built co-op housing (The Domes, N street, K street and other co-housing projects), community gardens and an extensive collection of community built artwork by the Art/ Science Fusion project in the University and Arboretum.
- Housing:
- Two blocks away are ample hotel rooms for all participants. We have discount arrangements for some of the motels in the area.
- Food:
- Inside the conference center Pacha Mama Coffee House serves a variety of fare trade coffee, refreshments, and pastries. Within a hundred yards there are a half dozen restaurants and a Whole Foods from healthy to fat filled meals from $6-$10.
- On Friday and Saturday nights we will have catered banquets followed by key-note presentations and films.