Amber Li
Collaborating with the Carnegie Science Center and Carnegie Libraries of Pittsburgh in a series of four installations to discover new methods of interactive learning and outreach to underserved neighborhoods.
8 weeks
Installation Design
Community Outreach
Stakeholder Analysis
Fabrication
Ai/Id
Kristin Hughes
Marti Louw
Stefan Gruber
Parrish Andre
Olivia Luk
Jaden Luscher
Our team interviewed many community leaders in Hazelwood, a once thriving neighborhood of the Pittsburgh area. This included Diane Schenck, the owner of its only grocery store; Center for Life, a church that provides popular free summer camps; Community Kitchen, an organization that trains formerly incarcerated individuals to work in the restaurant industry; and foodservice operations in Hazelwood’s schools.
Based on current topics within the community, such as gentrification, food deserts, and more, we created installations that focused on different scientific concepts that reflected the Science Center’s current exhibitions, while retaining place-based relevance, such as mapping foragable trees and mapping community gardens and farms.
Alongside our installations, we facilitated events alongside the Hazelwood Center for Life summer camps and the libraries, where kids came to use their imaginations to think of the future, being crafty, and working together.
Over the course of our summer, we collected hundreds of points of data from our exhibitions and from community conversation. Design for museums is a challenging task due to the nature of its limited resources and large audience. Visit our Miro board for more detailed insights, documentation, and reflection upon our work.