Drawn to Place
Drawing as Cultural Listening, Community Dreaming and Place Documentation
Thursday, May 28, 2026 · 10am PST | 90 minutes
Zoom - Workshop Format
Zoom - Workshop Format
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Every community carries invisible maps — the places that hold memory, ritual, belonging, and identity. They rarely show up in plans. They almost never survive a public meeting. But they are exactly what makes a place worth caring for.
This workshop introduces Lili Razi’s methodology for surfacing and visualizing community intangibles: a practice that sits at the intersection of cultural listening, storytelling, and illustration. Drawing from her work on The World’s Public Spaces Project — a global co-creation initiative that collects stories and illustrations of everyday public life across cultures — Lili will share the tools, prompts, and visual storytelling methods she uses to help communities represent their public spaces on their own terms. What We’ll Work On 1. Cultural Meaning Maps Learn how to gather the stories — memories, rituals, emotions, and cultural ties — that reveal how communities actually experience a space, and why that knowledge changes what comes next. 2. Drawing as Listening Practice translating stories into images. Explore how visual documentation transforms a person from a data point into a subject — someone planners, funders, and decision-makers can see, hear, and take seriously. 3. Drawing as Dreaming Learn to use sketching as a tool for collective imagination: a way to invite communities to picture futures they haven’t been handed yet, without flattening their hopes into a sterile rendering. 4. Building Your Story Collection Walk away with a concrete plan for gathering and visualizing stories from your community — whether that becomes a zine, StoryMap, gallery, pop-up exhibit, or document that changes a planning process. What to Bring A photo of a place you care about and curiosity about who else cares about it, and why. |
Who’s Leading This
Lili Razi is an artist, urban designer, graphic recorder, and Project Manager at Mural Arts Philadelphia. She holds dual master’s degrees in Urban Design and Community Development and a Bachelor of Architecture. She is a core contributor to The World’s Public Spaces Project, a global initiative documenting how people across cultures relate to everyday public life, and has developed tools that help communities represent their places on their own terms. What You’ll Walk Away WithA framework for understanding how communities hold place — and a practical toolkit for surfacing, drawing, and sharing those stories in ways that can shape plans, build advocacy, and honor what already exists. PlacemakingUS Workshops PlacemakingUS workshops are highly interactive, skill-building sessions designed to strengthen the projects and plans in front of you while building your confidence in delivering world-class placemaking. Ideal for cities, consultants, place management organizations, universities, advocacy groups, and grassroots teams working toward meaningful community outcomes. 
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