Cultivate the Possible
New SUM | A Game Played From Here & Now, Forward
Three nights only. April 2025. RSVP recommended.
New SUM is an experimental game night hosted within the Placemakers Union (PU) residency at MING Studios, inviting participants to explore alignment, adaptation, responsibility, and possibility in this place we share.
So many of us are stepping into community action and advocacy—but where do we align? New SUM offers space to share passion projects, bodies of work, and areas of active study and inquiry to find common footing—both on the literal ground we occupy and in the metaphorical ground of our work, projects, and the causes that call us to respond.
I am participating as an artist in the space—and in a precursor to this June’s show Riparia, at MING with the EcoGeoGlyphic Observatory (EGG). I bring a parameter of grounded intent as a founding member of the Treasure Valley Community Gardens Cooperative. In this work with New SUM, focused on food security, and informed by food sovereignty efforts that span generations and geographies.
In this residency, that will be represented in part through the collaborative creation of a pop-up Seed Library, in formation with the PU—sharing seeds and their powerful potential for adaptation, abundance, and co-creation with place. These are more than seeds; they’re an invitation into relationship—with each other, land, sustenance, memory, and change.
New SUM asks: What is your goal for our community? If you were to choose one project—something you’ve given your life energy to, or wanted to—it might offer a thread forward. This is a generational practice: a way of imagining, acting, and deciding with those who came (perhaps waaay) before, and those still to come.
In a time when consumers face increasingly few and highly dependent systems of precarity, when huge parts of our labor forces are under attack, and when programs that once offered systems of care—for people, land, and generations—are being hollowed out, New SUM offers a space to pause, recalibrate, and reconnect.
Because it is a game—it can also be fun. Approaching these times with a spirit of curiosity and compassion, with space for some wild possibilities, helps open new vantage points. The game invites us to listen deeply and share generously—to name what matters, play through what-ifs, and imagine what could be.
If we listen to each other, share ideas and knowledge, and look side to side, we can remember that we are far greater in number than any force working to divide and devalue us. And in that remembering, there is strength.
Sharing is one of the most powerful acts we can undertake.
The Placemakers Union residency at MING Studios brings together a growing group of people exploring what it means to co-create place with intention, care, and a willingness to ask better questions.
The project began as a conversation between two friends, Reggie Mace and Lena Walker, who posed a core question:
What if, instead of relying on institutions or profit-driven systems, we drew from our shared knowledge and resources to shape the city we actually want?
That question continues to guide the work. The group includes architects, educators, designers, musicians, caregivers, and others, and welcomes placemakers of all identities. We define placemaking simply: the act of imbuing space with meaning. Everyone already does it, whether they realize it or not. The mission of PU is to help build awareness of this, and to create opportunities and infrastructure for exchange, connection, and ongoing practice.
During this residency, the group is weaving together four core approaches in a shared space where they can interact and nourish one another:
Provide infrastructures of knowledge and care
Cultivate interdisciplinary and collaborative practice
Apply what is learned through events and open studios
Document the process to reflect and share
RESERVE Your Spot!
New SUM Game Sessions will be held at MING Studios as part of a residency with The Placemakers Union! This round of game sessions will run through 3 weeks in April so be sure to RSVP!
The game is designed for 7 players.
However, you can bring 1-2 people to join you as you team up with other players during the rounds of play.