The 4th Annual Engage Dallas Place-Based Community Engagement Symposium is taking place on November 5–6, and we’d love for you to be there! Registration is free and open to all through the button below.
This year’s keynote address will invite us to reflect deeply on how place-based engagement can bridge divides and foster meaningful belonging within the community. Our keynote speaker, Krista Nightengale, brings a wealth of experience in journalism, non-profit management, and community building. Krista will challenge us to think about what it truly means to thrive together.
Alongside thought-provoking talks, you’ll also have the chance to experience connection firsthand. Day two of the symposium will feature an interactive activity, presented by ArtStillery. Believing that audiences should be more than spectators, ArtStillery breaks the fourth wall to create an experiential performance style that fosters immersive theater. Be prepared to be immersed at this year’s symposium.
We can’t wait to gather with community leaders, educators, students, and neighbors from across DFW for two days of meaningful learning and engagement.
Introducing, Krista Nightengale
Krista Nightengale began her career in journalism when she stumbled into the fascinating world of urban design. She discovered the Better Block Foundation, an international, urban design nonprofit that educates, equips, and empowers communities and their leaders to reshape and reactivate built environments to promote the growth of healthy and vibrant neighborhoods. In her nearly 10 years at the Better Block, Krista has worked with neighbors in more than 100 cities to rethink streets, turn parking lots to plazas, and identify the barriers keeping communities from enjoying their public spaces. The work has resulted in economic development, calmed streets, and has lowered crime rates. But most importantly, it brings neighbors together. Krista has built hundreds of digitally fabricated benches, kiosks, and survey stands. She uses social media to educate around placemaking and transportation, and she’s a pretty adequate drone operator (as long as there’s no wind).
Krista was most recently on the Dallas City Plan and Zoning Commission, the Dallas Comprehensive Land Use Committee, past-president of the Dallas Architecture and Design Exchange board, former AIA Dallas Board Member, former member of the Dallas Commission on Homelessness, and a graduate of Leadership Texas.
Be Immersed with Artstillery
Artstillery is a multidisciplinary arts & social justice organization that uplifts marginalized voices by working alongside community members to shape their narratives into original immersive productions.
Founded in 2016, Artstillery creates performances centered around issues of racial, cultural, and social injustice. Sometimes a story needs a storyteller, but that starts with listening. Our process begins with research using a combination of community outreach and interviews. We combine these stories with an interdisciplinary artistic approach that creates a ‘total theatre’ experience. Artstillery’s goal is to give a voice to people who feel they have none.
