„ When I visit new cities, I follow the noise that leads me to vibrant squares and parks. My favorite public places are where people gather around experiences. Where there’s different functions and where I get surprised. It's places that want to tell me something. Through public places you can learn so much about a community and society. "  
Jesper Koefoed-Melson - Vida Local 

Where are spaces of encounters in our communities? Are these spaces similar in rural and urban areas or do they even exist in our local environment? The project Community Co-Creation ended with a symposium at the Reykjavík City Library on the 16th of November 2023. The symposium gave a unique opportunity to reflect and re-evaluate the purposes and usage of public spaces like libraries, museums, cultural centers, and artist residencies in urban and rural regions.  How can cultural institutions in the context of mobility and migration become spaces of encounters especially in some rural areas where there is a lack of meeting spaces?   

Lara Hoffmann and Anna Wojtyńska, postdoctoral researchers from the University of Iceland and researchers of the project Community Co-Creation, began with presenting the project and their findings from the exploration journey around Iceland´s cultural spaces and the impact of art methods in working with immigrant communities. 

The partners to the project gave inputs about their experience in placemaking in the rural parts of Iceland including inputs from Aija Burdikova from Muncipal Library of Akureyri, Elísa Elíasdóttir from The Library of Rangæingar in Hvolsvöllur, Vaida Bražiūnaitė from the Museum of Everyday Life in Ísafjörður with the storyteller Hannah Rós Sigurðardóttir Tobin. They exchanged on the experiences of different methods they applied in gathering people from diverse backgrounds through cultural activities.  

In the second half of the symposium Jesper Koefoed-Melson from Vida Local in Denmark introduced his placemaking method – a co-creative process with communities to transform spaces into places for people. Jesper went into the different phases of the placemaking to give us an idea of how to build sustainable cities through community. One example of being the Kulturdistriktet – that is a vision, an urban area and an organization that creates art and cultural experiences in Copenhagen.  

A lively discussion took place towards the end of the symposioum. Questions were raised about the necessary conditions for practicing placemaking: the political sphere, urban planning and social conditions and the access to resources needed to make a place your own.