Artists + Scientists + Communities

Creating a Sustainable Future

City as Living Laboratory (CALL) works with artists, scientists, and residents of urban communities to create sustainable solutions for urgent environmental issues including climate, equity, and health. We help people connect environmental challenges to personal experiences and take action.

CALL’s Mission

is to use the power of art and science to promote understanding of critical environmental challenges in local communities and spur action for sustainable solutions.

CALL Envisions

more livable, sustainable, and equitable urban communities and thriving local ecosystems visualized and brought to life through artist and scientist partnerships, projects, and programs.

CALL Values

the power of creative and holistic thinking, interdisciplinary collaboration, and partnership to solve environmental challenges;
the importance of personal experience to understand local ecosystems and take communal action to drive change;
treating all people with respect and dignity to ensure that decision-making is equitable and inclusive at all levels;
the goal of sustainable development as a guiding principle for our programs, community action, and connectedness across whole cities; and
the integration of environmental, social, and economic (ESG) goals to maximize the potential of our programs and partnerships.

CALL // Core Initiatives

Featured

CALL/WALKS

CALL identifies artists committed to addressing environmental issues and partners them with a scientist or other expert in that issue. These collaborative teams engage the public ‘on the street’ in WALKS that raise awareness of the unseen and threatened aspects of their environment. CALL is building a network of partner institutions in cities across the country to carry out CALL/WALKS in their own communities, and has produced a toolkit anyone can use to hold a CALL/WALK in their area. We also provide consulting services to businesses, cities, and other organizations who want support in using CALL/WALKS to engage community members in local environmental advocacy. Partner With Us.

CaLL Walk, Collision Theory led by Joyce Hwang and Gabriel Willow spring 2015

CALL/WORKSHOPS

When a series of WALKS has uncovered momentum in a community, CALL begins to hold WORKSHOPS, which are designed to facilitate more in-depth conversations between artists and community members. They explore local environmental challenges and create a springboard for arts & design-based projects to generate new ideas and strategies. The WORKSHOPS include 30-40 community representatives, as well as artists, designers, scientists, and other issue experts.

CaLL Chinatown Workshop, 2017

CALL/PROPOSALS

Using information gathered in the WORKSHOPS, CALL commissions PROPOSALS from participating artists/designers for concepts that could lead to new PROJECTS which address local concerns and directly engage the community in meeting them. The PROPOSALS lay out the concept scope, goals, science collaborators, intended community partners, site and logistical considerations, implementation timeline and budget.

Designing Food Awareness in Chinatown, Stephen Fan and Valerie Imbruce

CALL/PROJECTS

CALL tests and implements the best artist PROPOSALS that come from WORKSHOPS. These PROJECTS can be smalls scale community interventions or large scale initiatives that will make a permanent impact on a city. CALL also takes on commissions from other institutions or cities, like WaterMarks and StreamLines, and uses our iterative framework of walks, workshops, and proposals to inform and drive those urban-scale PROJECTS

UCC Acosta Middle School, Milwaukee WaterMarks

CALL // OBJECTIVES

support and advance the role of artists in efforts to make cities more livable and sustainable.

connect people to the ecosystem and infrastructure that surrounds them, supporting their lives, making things that are hidden, unseen, or abstract real and tangible.