Feature image: Yee-Li Tee and Feras & Friends busting moves beneath the dance vents (image Anna Kucera) In 2021 City People produced a COVID-safe dancing option for our urban landscapes. Wanna Dance is an interactive art installation that invites everyone to bring the city to life through art, music and dance. A collaboration between some
At City People our passion is creative placemaking: embedding arts and culture in public spaces so that people connect with each other and the place in which they live, work or visit. The health regulations aimed at restricting the transmission of COVID-19 currently prevent or diminish the ability of people to gather, as well as
The Western Sydney Parklands Arts and Cultural Accelerator was an innovative 10-day development lab involving artists and professionals from other fields that generated a set of concepts for arts and culture projects for the parklands.
In 2018–2019, City People collaborated with Aspect Studios on the Sydney Olympic Park Red Zone Public Domain Plan and produced a place activation strategy for the area. Sydney Olympic Park is a major event destination but also a burgeoning dense city environment with the development of the Carter Street and proposed Town Centre precincts. Our collaboration with Aspect Studios included providing strategic direction on activation for the changing precinct around ANZ Stadium in the heart of Sydney’s iconic Olympic Park.
Campbelltown City Council is planning for significant change in the Glenfield area, aligned with the NSW State Government’s Fit for the Future program, in anticipation of the area’s projected population growth. City People was sub-contracted by Environmental Partnership to contribute to the Glenfield Public Domain Plan at various phases, through a process of workshop design, interviews, presentation and place activation strategy.
Nomanslanding was an art installation and performance created from an international partnership with curators and artists from five different countries which performed to over 27,000 people in Germany, Scotland and Australia.
In 2009 and 2010 Michael Cohen, now director of City People, directed and produced two water spectacles for Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority (SHFA) as part of Vivid Sydney.
Michael Cohen, now director of City People, devised and implemented an arts lab ‘incubator’ model for Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority (SHFA) as a way of generating activation projects that speak directly to the identity (past, present and future) of Darling Harbour and The Rocks, two of Australia’s most visited destinations. Emerging from the first laboratory was The Rocks Windmill.
For many years, Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority (SHFA) ran an evening music and market activation offering in The Rocks. However customer satisfaction and attendance at the event was waning and the activation did not represent the brand pillars for the precinct. Furthermore, the precinct had become stigmatised with a reputation for excessive drinking and antisocial behaviour, creating a precarious night time economy.
During 2011-2016 Michael Cohen, now director of City People, produced several projects that endeavoured to address the lack of Aboriginal stories visible in the public domain of The Rocks – the landing place of Europeans in Australia.
