The City of Somerville’s Compass-Fueled Collaborative Turning Piont

Daniel Koff, adjunct professor at Olin College and founder of Solomon Office, shared this story about the Compass' impact on a city’s collaborative rebirth—a powerful why for this work. In Daniel’s words…
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I'm galvanized that I got to play a key role in realizing a turning point for the city of Somerville, Massachusetts: its first-ever cultural plan—co-created with city residents, Forecast Public Art, and Mallory Rukhsana Nezam, and leveraging the long history of this work by the Somerville Arts Council.

The Somerville Cultural Capacity Plan engages the local arts and culture community to explore ways to strengthen and improve access to Somerville’s cultural assets. 

It was grounded in community conversations around the Innovators’ Compass questions: what’s happening in the arts and culture community and why, principles to guide development, ideas to preserve and grow opportunities, and experiments to try right away. 

Local Ambassadors, identified by a citywide survey, worked with Ela to create a discussion guide, then hosted thirty community affinity groups, totaling 195 participants: arts groups (media, visual, performing, etc.) and other residents (newcomers, elders, parents, etc.) for the initial conversations. 

The City held a “Citywide Forum”, an open house sharing the 150 resulting easel Compass pages, typed Ambassadors’ notes (via QR codes), and synthesized themes with the entire Somerville community for further input. The Ambassadors continued to collaborate on the Plan’s development. 

Already the Plan is having an impact. In one of the first in-person hearings Somerville hosted since the pandemic, over 135 people signed up to testify about changes to zoning for Arts and Creative Enterprise uses. The vast majority were in favor -- as long as the City makes those changes after a Community Benefits Agreement is signed with a major developer. This Hearing, plus additional upcoming convenings hosted by an Ambassador who was first engaged through the planning process, show how the Compass has helped to galvanize a community around making structural changes to their city that will incentivize the preservation and growth of the arts and culture sector. 

As Mayor Katjana Ballantyne shared at the citywide forum, “The success of the plan lies in our collaboration and co-creation. It lies in our ability to be inclusive more than we have ever been before in our outreach and engagement to ensure that all voices are represented in the plan…Participants have come up with some bold and transformational ideas. That kind of expansive thinking will better enable government and residents to work together to maximize our resources for the Community.”