Upcoming Conferences

What is a City? is a conference at UMSL this Thursday and Friday. Here is an outline from the conference website:

When: October 25-26, 2012
Where: UMSL, J.C. Penney Conference Center, Summit Lounge

How Art Builds Community

The Center for the Humanities invites you to join speakers from across the Midwest and St. Louis in exploring the power of art to effect changes in urban neighborhoods and communities. The majority of artists live in cities and their work often addresses urban concerns of health, happiness, diversity, security, freedom of expression, and a sustainable environment. We examine such questions as: How do art and artists help sustain our cities? Why should we support the work of artists? Why do cities need art and vice versa? Why should citizens and voters know about the artists and art projects in their communities and beyond? 

The SLU Center for Sustainability is hosting the 2012 Sustainable disaster Recovery Conference. Here is an intro from their website:

The Center for Sustainability, Greensburg GreenTown, and GreenTown Joplin are proud to present the 2012 Sustainable Disaster Recovery Conference to be held on the campus of Saint Louis University on Monday, October 29 and Tuesday, October 30.

The conference aims to help cities stricken by natural disasters rebuild strong, livable communities by identifying ways to efficiently and effectively weave elements of sustainability into the disaster recovery process, while increasing collaboration among all parties working toward this goal.  

The Sustainable Cities Conference is hosted by Washington University and takes place on several sites. A Lecture by Bill McKibben kicks it off on Thursday night, November 1st. The Land Lab portion starts Friday at the Contemporary Museum of Art. Here is a preview from their website:

Land Lab

Building on public dialogue started by the Open/Closed conferences and the Pruitt Igoe Now and GOOD Ideas for Cities competitions, the Land Lab Competition seeks innovative ideas for sustainability projects on St. Louis’s vacant lots. Teams will rethink one of the region’s greatest challenges into an asset that advances sustainability.

The winning proposals–selected via a public competition–will consist of integrated strategies for urban sustainability issues, such as power generation, site remediation, storm water management, economic development, and food systems.