The World’s Park

A white title slide with centered text, and black, uppercase font that reads, “THE WORLD’S PARK. Beneath the text, is a green oval with a blue squiggly line running through it, titling to the left.

The World’s Park: Reconnecting a Regional Park with Its Neighbors was a community engagement partnership between the New York City Parks Department, the Queens Museum, and Design Trust for Public Space, focused on equipping people from diverse communities with the knowledge to seek creative improvements for Flushing Meadows Corona Park (FMCP).

 

The World’s Park community advisors, an initial group of active park users and advocates, participated in a rigorous learning experience and design collaboration focused on addressing FMCP’s most pressing ‘connectivity’ challenges. The group met in December 2014 and, with support from the Queens Museum’s community organizer and a team of Fellows from the Design Trust for Public Space, to research and develop imaginative concepts that highlight opportunities to address park access and wayfinding, share park history and cultural resources, and provide programming for various age groups and abilities.

 

Background

In 2014, with the intention of building on the strong community momentum generated by local organizations who came together to protect the park from commercial developments and raise the issue of park equity, the Queens Museum and NYC Parks submitted a proposal to the Design Trust for Public Space, as part of their 2014 request for projects called The Energetic City: Connectivity in the Public Realm. The proposal outlined an innovative plan for seeking community-driven proposals for improving connectivity between the park and the surrounding neighborhoods by recruiting neighbors to participate in an experimental ‘Community Design School.’ The process involved extensive outreach to every neighborhood surrounding the park and to a wide variety of civic, immigrant, and environmental stewardship organizations that had been involved in the park’s protection and care. The process also involved recruiting a Design Education fellow and a Participatory Design Fellow to co-facilitate the Community Design School along with the Queens Museum’s community organizer.

 

Exhibition

On April 12, 2015, the World’s Park community advisors, fellows, and partners opened You Are Here: Creating a New Approach to Civic Participation in the World’s Park, an exhibition at the Queens Museum to culminate the first phase of The World’s Park project.

 

Community Advisors

Don Capalbi
Jason Chin-Fatt
Gregory Coles
Maria Julia Echart
Neshi Galindo
Donald Han
Anita Jiang
Jonathan Jimenez
Perla López
Son K. Min
Kim Ohanian
Melissa Ortiz
Raychel OShea-Patiño
Alba Preciado
Anandi A. Premlall
Suzy Qiu
Sandy Qiu
Larry Rosenbloom
Esther Sánchez
Libertad Sánchez
Alan Sherman
Jean C. Silva
James Winans

 

Fellows

Sam Holleran, Participatory Design Fellow
Sarah Lidgus, Design Education Fellow
José Serrano-McClain, Community Organizing Fellow

 

FMCP Parks’ Staff

Meira Berkower
Vickie Karp
Janice Melnick
Woo Sung Park

Supporters

The World’s Park is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. Support is also provided in part by the J. M. Kaplan Fund, Surdna Foundation, Kresge Foundation, Lambent Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State legislature, and by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

 

Additional funding is provided by the Design Trust Founder’s Circle, including Agnes Gund, Kitty Hawks, Sophia W. Healy, Lily Auchincloss Foundation, Camila Pastor & Stephen Maharam, and Kelly Posner.