Urban Arboreta Shares Knight Cities Challenge Experience at PennPraxis Panel
On September 20th, 2016, the Urban Arboreta team, represented by Deenah Loeb, had the opportunity to participate in a panel of other Philadelphia Knight Cities Challenge winners hosted by PennPraxis. The panel was a great opportunity to share our progress and lessons learned over the past 12 months.
Below is an excerpt from a blog post on the panel by PennPraxis Managing Director Julie Donofrio.
On September 20, 2016 PennPraxis convened representatives from the Philadelphia design, planning, and entrepreneurial community to discuss their experiences working with Knight Cities Challenge Grants here in Philadelphia. As the practical design arm of the University of Pennsylvania School of Design, PennPraxis is particularly interested in innovative ways that placemaking and community building is happening in the city and elsewhere, to provide models and inspiration for students and practitioners alike. The panelists included five Philadelphians who had received grants in both the 2015 and 2016 funding cycles. The Knight Foundation opens the third and final round of the Knight Cities Challenge grants in October 2016, so the panel also served as a venue to share experiences that would be valuable to future applicants.
Panelists included Anuj Gupta, General Manager of Reading Terminal Market, Emma Rutherford, Co-Founder and Design Director of Scout, Ltd., Tayyib Smith, COO and Founder of Little Giant Creative and Co-Founder of the Institute of Hip Hop Entrepreneurship, Deenah Loeb (MLA ’97), Executive Director of City Parks Associationand Co-founder of Urban Arboreta, and Michelle Freeman, Founder and President of Witty Gritty and publisher of Flying Kite Media.
Each of the panelists gave a brief overview of their projects, explaining the idea behind the grant, their experience that led them to pursue the idea, and how it was carried out, including challenges and surprises. The presentations were followed by a brief discussion, facilitated by PennPraxis Managing Director Julie Donofrio, and then Q&A from the audience.
Click here to read the rest of the blog post over at PennPraxis.