David Scobey

PAST PROJECTS

Public projects have been central to my academic work and integral to my teaching and scholarship.  On the left is a roster of these cultural, historical, and educational projects.  The thumbnails on the right link to pages for many of them.  At bottom, the projects are sorted by genre.  (These also have links to project pages.)

All this was done in the context of three institutional roles: as Director of the Arts of Citizenship Program at the University of Michigan (1998-2005); as Director of the Harward Center for Community Partnerships at Bates College (2005-2010); and as Executive Dean of The New School's School For Public Engagement (2010-14).  I helped to support other partnerships and initiatives in these roles; but here there are only projects where I had a direct hand. The Leadership section gives general information about Arts of Citizenship, the Harward Center, and the New School for Public Engagement.

Most projects involved students in my classes.  At the University of Michigan, my seminar on Community Projects in the Arts and Humanities (see syllabi, 2000, 2001, and 2005) was the platform for most of the Arts of Citizenship projects listed below.  The Teaching section gives more information on this and other community-based courses.

Nearly all of these projects were conceived and accomplished in collaboration with community partners. They are credited below or in the linked project pages, with my deepest thanks.

COMPREHENSIVE LIST of projects

(key partner and general topic in parentheses)
 

ARTS OF CITIZENSHIP PROGRAM
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN:

STUDENTS ON SITE (Ann Arbor Public Schools; website and
     field trips teaching local history in elementary schools)

ENVIRONMENTAL LEGACIES (Ann Arbor Public Schools; youth
     environmental education curriculum)

BROADWAY PARK REDESIGN PROJECT (Ann Arbor Department
     of Parks and Recreation; website on history and redesign of local
     riverfront park)

UNDERGROUND RAILROAD IN MICHIGAN (African-American
     Cultural and Historical Museum of Washtenaw County; research
     for guided tour and children's exhibition on the local history of the
     Underground Railroad)

MEMORIES FROM HAMBLIN (Heritage Battle Creek; website
     on history and displacement of black neighborhood in Battle
     Creek after World War II)

"2001 HASTINGS STREET" (Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit;
     historical research and lobby exhibition for play on
     coming of age in African-American Detroit in the 1940s)

"NOW THAT I CAN DANCE" (Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit;
     historical materials for play about Motown Records)

"CHILDREN OF ABRAHAM" (Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit;
     educational materials for play about relations among
     Muslim, Christian, and Jewish youth )

HOMELANDS (Matrix Theatre Company; oral history and lobby
     exhibition for play about immigrants to Southwest Detroit)

TELLING IT (SOS Community Services; arts and literacy
     afterschool program for children in homeless shelters)

"COMING OF AGE DURING THE RIOT YEARS" (Michigan
     Radio; broadcast piece about coming of age in 1967 Detroit)

"BETWEEN TWO WORLDS: ARAB-AMERICAN YOUTH AFTER
     9/11" (Michigan Radio, Arab Community Center for Economic
     and Social Services; broadcast piece about the experience of
     Arab-American teens in the year after 9/11)

"JAZZ IN THE MOTOR CITY" (Michigan Radio; story on the
     coming-of-age of jazz musicians in 1950s Detroit)

"HALLELUJAH PROJECT: IN PRAISE OF PARADISE LOST
     AND FOUND" (Liz Lerman Dance Exchange; multi-year
     community dance education and performance partnership)

AMERICA PROJECT (Sekou Sundiata; artistic residency and
     partnership with African- and Arab-American culture-makers to
    develop spoken-word and musical piece on America after 9/11)
 

HARWARD CENTER FOR COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS, BATES COLLEGE:

MUSEUM L-A PARTNERSHIP (Museum L-A; curatorial, research,
     and administrative partnership with community history museum)

"WEAVING A WORLD" (Museum L-A; traveling exhibition on
     world of  immigrant textile millworkers in 20th-century Lewiston,
     Maine)

DEC: DOWNTOWN EDUCATION COLLABORATIVE (partnership
     of four colleges and three community organizations; storefront
     popular education center in Lewiston, Maine)

"SOCIAL FABRIC" (Christina Bechstein; text for art installation on
     history and social fabric of millworker community in Lewiston,
     Maine)
 

NEW SCHOOL FOR PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT
THE NEW SCHOOL:

PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT FELLOWSHIP (Peer leadership and
     educational innovation fellowship for adult, nontraditional
     undergraduates)