The city of San Francisco is a living form, constantly changing and evolving: from its genesis as a leading gold rush destination to its contemporary status as the technology and information capital of the world. Yet as current dynamics accelerate and the city is becoming a hub for global capital, notions of civic participation and inclusion in San Francisco have undergone profound changes.

Take Part seeks to create a shared public vision of the city by anchoring discussions about its past, present and future, to the tangible: a 1000 square foot detailed wooden scale model of the city built in the late 1930s by the WPA under the New Deal program. It was displayed in sections in 1939, and as a whole in 1940-1941 in City Hall. The model was used as an urban planning tool through the 1960s. In 1968, the downtown portion became a teaching and research tool at UC Berkeley. The model has not been on public view in its entirety, since 1941. Take Part reimagines San Francisco by way of its people through a program of public events that involves the participation of librarians, urban planners, cartographers, social geographers, historians, students, and many others to experience the model, reflect on their relationship to the city, and to imagine the city’s possibilities. Take Part comes from “Taking Part”, community planning workshop processes created in the 1970s by Lawrence and Anna Halprin. These workshops encouraged collective creativity, to work together to solve complex problems.