s l o w p r a c t i c e , the solo project of Cara Michell, is an urban planning and public art studio that prioritizes community participation. Cara’s current art and research projects focus on community-led cartography and participatory mapping.
s l o w p r a c t i c e advises urban designers, architects, and art institutions on effectively engaging members of the public in city planning and urban design processes. It is founded on the principals that urban planning should move at the speed of trust. Hierarchies between stakeholder groups can – and should – collapse. And users of the built environment should have as much input into shaping a place’s development as any other steward, policy maker or land owner.
collab w/ me if you, too, want to go slow. because we don’t need to work at the speed of capitalism.
MOMA PS1 – Collaborator & Participatory Mapping Consultant
NYC :: 2021 – Present
Ongoing creative effort with MOMA PS1 Courtyard Coalition. Installation on view now until November 2022.
WXY Studio – Associate & Senior Urban Planner
NYC :: 2018 – 2021
WXY is an award-winning multi-disciplinary practice specializing in the realization of urban design, planning and architectural solutions in challenging contexts. Focused on innovative approaches to public space, structures and urban issues, the firm’s work engages both site-specific design and planning at multiple scales. The firm’s commissions are in collaboration with community-based organizations, public authority, and private clients.
Urban Design Forum – Forefront Fellow
NYC :: September 2020 – Present
Selected to participate in Cooperative Works, Forefront’s fifth fellowship, which explores how to support minority-owned businesses and workers of color, expand worker cooperatives, and democratize economic resources to build a more inclusive economy.
Forefront is an annual initiative dedicated to cultivating 25 emerging leaders in urban design, development and policy. This year’s work is in partnership with the Deputy Mayor for Strategic Policy Initiatives and the Mayor’s Office of M/WBE.
Brook McIlroy – Urban Planner
Toronto, CA :: 2016 – 2018
Brook McIlroy is an award-winning architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, planning, and Indigenous place making firm founded on the ambition to create a truly multi-disciplinary practice to address the complex and interrelated challenges of contemporary city building.
Black Body Survival Store – Collaborator / Artist
Boston, MA :: 2017
Art installation and collaboration with the design lab Intelligent Mischief (Terry Marshall & Aisha Shillingford). Exhibited during Occupancies at Boston University’s 808 Gallery.
Black in Design Conference – Founding Co-Chair
Cambridge, MA :: 2015
Co-led a small team of students to plan and execute the Harvard GSD African American Student Union’s Black in Design Conference (the first conference at Harvard to recognize the contributions of African Americans in design professions and highlight the responsibility of designers to address structural inequality and institutionalized racism in their work).
Cara Michell 