CSUDH Praxis

combining personalized research with “learning by doing” in an academic setting, students interact closely with faculty, the University, and the community. The key investment of the CSUDH Art and Design Department in Praxis Studio is to expand community engagement, opening access to the university and building both practical and intellectual bridges to the local community by fostering students’ ability to execute their visions for social change. Praxis Studio is co-directed at CSUDH by artist and Assistant Professor Devon Tsuno Praxis Studio. BIG CITY FORUM
ORGANIZATION-IN-RESIDENCE

Big City Forum (BCF), founded in 2008 by Los Angeles-based artist, educator, and activist Leonardo Bravo, is an independent, interdisciplinary project that explores the intersection between design-based creative disciplines within the context of public space, the built environment, and social change. BCF is committed to exploring the forms of social space that emerge from the nexus of community-based initiatives, forms of urban activation, and public engagement. It seeks to rethink the spaces of everyday life: how people use them, and how they should be designed in order to activate an idea of the commons. BCF provides platforms for forward-thinking creative projects. It functions as an incubator of ideas that actualizes agendas and frames complex social issues. Creativity and the arts are powerful tools for civic transformation. They usher new forms through which dominant narratives can be renegotiated and bypassed. BCF strives to make creativity visible, become a conduit for information and knowledge, and empower citizens. Through dialogue and collaborative inquiry at the intersection of various creative disciplines, its goal has always been to sidestep scholarly discourse and directly enact social change that permeate the space of the everyday.