[project / 01]

cities / people / participation

nov bureau

urban community research

listening to residents before art appears on their walls

researcher · sociologist and cultural anthropologist

2022-2025

01 / context

nov is a public art and sociocultural design bureau. its approach is therapeutic urbanism: strengthening people's connection to the places where they live. its projects bring together murals, functional art objects and long-term community programmes in russian cities

02 / the brief

conduct participatory research with residents of several neighbourhoods before murals and artistic interventions were created. the bureau needed a sociologist and cultural anthropologist to understand these communities before the artists joined the process

03 / my contribution

i designed and conducted quantitative surveys with residents of buildings chosen for murals, carried out qualitative interviews and developed findings and recommendations for the artistic team

the aim was to ground the artwork in these communities' real stories and lived experience

04 / the outcome

research and residents' participation informed more than ten murals, as well as several parks and skate spaces designed around contemporary art

more than 10

murals created with research as their foundation

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