Reflections on Community Engagement from Terra Foundation Senior Engagement Fellow Pascale Ife Williams

Art Design Chicago highlights the voices and stories that are part of Chicago’s unique artistic heritage and creative communities. But at its core, it is even more than that―through support for an ongoing peer learning community, the Terra Foundation also aims to support Chicago-based visual art organizations’ efforts to grow engagement and make access to arts and culture in Chicago more equitable and inclusive.

Over the past two and a half years, Terra Foundation Senior Engagement Fellow Pascale Ife Williams has served as a guide to the Art Design Chicago Engagement Learning Community. An artist, educator, and organizer, Williams brings over 10 years of experience in justice-driven and community-engaged work to the role. She considers her contributions through a series of questions and answers in the essay “Reflections on Community Engagement from Terra Foundation Senior Engagement Fellow Pascale Ife Williams,” originally published by Art Design Chicago.

The position of Senior Engagement Fellow was a newly imagined position when I started. What has been my role and how have I served the Art Design Chicago community?

One of the wonderful things about stepping into a role that is new and has yet to be fully defined, is the invitation to play and experiment. I approach my work in this role through the lens of experimentation, equity, curiosity, reflection, and innovation. That is to say, I have tried to co-create and support spaces where folks ―all of whom are deeply committed to the arts, culture, people, and relationships―can gather to slow down and reflect on what they are doing, how they are doing it, why, and more. The sessions I’ve co-facilitated have also offered people the opportunity to learn from their peers and elders, and ideally activate imaginative, playful and intentional strategies while working alongside the communities they serve. One of my goals as Senior Engagement Fellow is to create a sort of “innovation lab” where folks can continue to be in conversation and practice as they integrate community engagement strategies into their programming, exhibitions, and beyond. A lot of my work is asking questions, and listening to the wisdom that comes from folks’ answers and helping them interpret and translate that information into action.

Read the full essay “Reflections on Community Engagement from Terra Foundation Senior Engagement Fellow Pascale Ife Williams” on Art Design Chicago’s website, originally published October 14, 2023.