Create-with-Nature Cart: Market Street Prototyping Festival

In 2015 and 2016, I collaborated with Mary Roscoe (Bay Area Children and Nature Collaborative) and Damien Raffa (Presidio Trust) to bring free public create-with-nature activities to the heart of downtown San Francisco.

In 2015, we were invited to be part of Outpost (created by Studio for Urban Projects), in the Market Street Prototyping Festival produced by the San Francisco Planning Department and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

In 2016, we were awarded our own space within the Prototyping Festival, and funding to design and build a custom Create-with-Nature Cart, featuring storage space for bins of natural materials and a pull-out table to provide an elevated work surface.

We deployed the cart on the wide sidewalk on central Market Street, and facilitated create-with-nature activities there for three full days in October, 2016, then  donated the cart and materials to the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department, for ongoing use at the Tenderloin Recreation Center and other sites. We then provided training to San Francisco Recreation and Parks staff on using the cart and facilitating create-with-nature activities, and the cart became an inspiration for the efforts of San Francisco Children & Nature to supply recreation centers and early childhood care sites with natural materials and training in create-with-nature activities.