This summer, students explored how urban planning topics are reflected back to society through the creative mediums of art, song, poetry and theatre in Susan Mason’s three-week course “Planning in Popular Culture.”
The interdisciplinary class resulted in a series of student essays written during the course and culminated with the production of three radio show programs airing on RadioBoise’s (89.9 or 93.5 FM) Building a Greener Idaho program at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, June 2, 9 and 16.
You can access both the student essays and a link to the archived radio shows after they have aired at https://planninginpopularculture.wordpress.com/.
In the interdisciplinary course, “we specifically looked at the how we build sense of place in our communities, the environment both natural and built as well as the topic of people from the perspective of social and economic inequity and vulnerable communities suchas the elderly and then how elements of these planning topics are expressed back to us through the arts,” explained Mason, an associate professor in community and regional planning.
One student essay focused on how public art, like Freak Alley, gave Boise a unique sense of place while another explained how Boise State’s iconic blue turf made the city feel like home. Other essays explored how the 1959 play “A Raisin in the Sun” confronts issues that cities still grapple with today, such as gentrification and so-called white flight.
The course included guest lectures from artists and Boise State faculty members including sculptor Benjamin Victor, poet Mac Test and theatre arts professor Leslie Durham. Local painters Carl Rowe and Jerri Lisk, artist Karen Bubb and musician Ruby Somoza shared their insights with students as well.
“The artists who were also sometimes academics shared not only their art or art form, but also their personal stories with regard to their interests and the process they use to communicate and express some of the topics in the field and profession of planning that we were reflecting on such as the environment, people, and sense of place,” Mason said.
Mason hopes to offer the class again in the future.
BY: CIENNA MADRID PUBLISHED 10:17 AM / JUNE 4, 2015