THANKS FOR
ATTENDING
20 QUESTIONS
FOR 20 YEARS!
JOIN US IN SHAPING THE
NEXT 20 YEARS OF DS4SI
For over two decades, DS4SI has asked bold questions, created strange and necessary interventions, and held space for justice, joy, and possibility.
Thank you for attending our 20 year anniversary, and showing us what happens when communities dare to imagine public life differently.
Collaborate with us as we continue to reimagine everyday life!
20
Questions explored over four weeks of intervention, study, and celebration
30+
Artists and special guests who contributed to the installations, converstions, and events
500+
People who participated in conversations, explored ideas, and imaginative interventions
Photography by Marvin G (shotxmarv) and The Corner 345 (@thecorner345)
At DS4SI, we often begin with a question.
Questions help us challenge assumptions about everyday life and open portals into new imaginaries. Our 20 Questions series builds on this practice: each question acts as an intervention, a small provocation placed in public space or inside our work to spark curiosity.
Whether someone seeks them out or stumbles upon them, these questions invite reflection on how we are as a public, what we share, and what might be possible. Each question becomes an opening into the themes that have shaped DS4SI’s 20 years of practice.
BOSTON ART REVIEW
DS4SI on Twenty Years of Social Practice for Civic Engagement
Kenneth Bailey, Lori Lobenstine, and Judith Leeman discuss the studio’s early days on occasion of their 20 Questions for 20 Years program, a month-long anniversary celebration in Roxbury that invites the public to use imagination and creativity to strengthen community ties in Boston.
Interview by Kim Córdova
THE HUB
The Hub was, in many ways, a pop-up version of DS4SI designed to welcome old and new friends of the Studio as we celebrated our 20th anniversary. Curated by Ayako Maruyama and Judith Leemann, it was a creative space where participants had a hands-on chance to learn about the Design Studio’s work from the past 20 years through the lens of 20 Questions, inviting new ways of thinking together.
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Visitors witnessed DS4SI’s work across the past 20 years through exploring the Timeline, the Archive, and other interactive installations, and learned about DS4SI’s methodology and tools for designing powerful social interventions.
They experienced curatorial talks, conversations, performances, and workshops. They studied with us as we reflected back and thought forward. Just like at our Design Gym, participants brought their own ideas to work out and stretch the muscles of our collective imagination. They met one another—the community of artists, activists, and academics—whether long-time collaborators or part of the growing merry band of misfits.
The Hub was an energetic and reflective space that held room for inquiry and witness alongside the curated programming led by our invited curators, co-conspirators, and the four themes they activated: Sense and Nonsense led by Anthony Romero, Affect and Aesthetics of Space and Place led by Tiago Gualberto, Intervening in the Moment led by Nato Thompson, and Rehearsing and Performing the Everyday led by Grisha Coleman. DS4SI Thought Ecology Lead, Judith Leemann, served as the Witness Curator, tending to our shared thinking.
The Hub’s curation, design, and fabrication were led by the Hub Design Team, including Hub Curator Ayako Maruyama, DS4SI Prototype Lead Maria Gerdyman, and Hub Design Consultant Senjuti Sangia.
Stitching Dreams, Building Worlds: Mending and Repair as a Collaborative World Building Practice: Materializing Tiago Gualberto’s The Dream as a Public Infrastructure Facilitated by Tanya Nixon-Silberg and Crystal Bi
Everyday Materials, Everyday Exchanges: Natural Hand-Dyeing & Binding Community: Materializing Amy Franceschini/ Futurefarmers’ Shoelace Exchange Facilitated by Francesca Santiago
From Hard Lines to Soft Fabrics: Connection, Collectivity, and Belonging: Materializing Mariángeles Soto-Díaz’s ME/WE Facilitated by Tanya Nixon-Silberg
20Q Social Making
Social Making Thursdays was a Design Gym prototype, curated by Anulfo Baez, that invited participants to create together as a way of practicing new ways of being. It asked: How can crafting together change the vibe of how we show up? What can collaboration and cross-pollination teach us about ourselves and each other?
Social Making Thursdays wasn’t just about learning a new craft for yourself; it was about rehearsing ways of being in relationship—with the materials we worked with and with one another—exploring how creation could shape connection.”
