Culturehouse Incorporated

General operations:because we have a small core team that works across programs, we group all staff salaries into our "general operations" category, along with general expenses for the organization that are used across programs such as software. With very little overhead, we are able to spend our time working directly on our programs, where we get to engage directly with our community. This past year, our team has worked on 9 projects across our three program areas and supported over 150 volunteer hours.

Community pop-ups:in our community pop-ups program we work alongside communities to activate vacant properties and transform them into communal living rooms, third spaces, and hosts for regular programming. They serve as hubs for on-the-ground research to determine long-term placemaking opportunities. In 2023, we worked with east somerville main streets to turn a vacant storefront into a community space. Open for a month, the space resulted in 73% of visitors feeling more positive about the area. The community space created a safe a safe and welcoming space for women and families, fostered a space for intercultural connection, and established connections with the larger somerville community.

Test kitchen:in our test kitchen program, we develop prototype interventions that bring joy and promote urban livability. We test them in our community, and scale them into viable projects. In 2023, completed 10 prototyping days, hosted a pop-up event in union square, and went on a study tour to oslo and copenhagen.

Special projects:in our special projects program, we leverage our proven placemaking methodology to support community partners in bringing their projects to life. We offer a range of services, drawing from our past work and tailored to project needs. In 2023, we created a toolkit to make parks more lively in the winter, built planters that showed how green infrastructure works, and started engagement work on a project to install a bicycle-friendly street.