Pathways of Practice

Interdisciplinary, engaged, meaningful

Shalini's design practice emerges through her art, architecture, teaching, writing, speaking, workshops and advocacy. Her notable career includes co-founding a community design nonprofit, championing and educating the next generation of creative leaders at the university-level, weaving a network of diverse public interest designers, mentoring and sponsoring women of color in design and architecture, and advocating for the importance of equity in design and architecture.

Shalini continues to pioneer and push boundaries as she explores and proves the value of design practices that are meaningful, collaborative and positively transform communities.

“When we center communities as experts, creative practitioners can be a conduit for meaningful and positive transformation by designing with, and not for, communities.”

Featured Projects

DECOLONIAL UNCONFERENCE

The Decolonial Unconference was a two-day event held Feburary 2020 that brought together students, faculty and broader community from California College of the Arts to discuss decolonizing practices in design education. The unconference consisted of facilitated discussions, workshops, and a keynote talk by Dr. Dori Tunstall.

PATHWAYS TO EQUITY

Pathways to Equity is a social equity leadership program that brings a systems design approach to addressing systemic racism in the built environment. This transformative experience introduces methods for equity in practice, learning about the impacts of historical inequities, self-reflection and strategies for community engagement. Pathways to Equity is the recipient of the NAACP/NOMA/SEED Award for Justice Equity Diversity and Inclusion.

URBANPLAN at ULI

Urban Land Institute sought to re-evaluated and better understand how equity can be addressed in their national land use engagement program UrbanPlan. After extensive research, engagement, analysis and assessment of the current delivery and content of the program, recommendations included multi-layered opportunities to integrate social, economic and racial equity considerations at its foundational level, to be delivered throughout their partner schools and communities nationally.

Sfusd

San Francisco School District community engaging in the co-creation and design of their schoolyard. We provided a culturally sensitive and responsive process, identifying community resources and existing assets. Schools include Lawton Elementary, Jose Ortega Elementary, Longfellow Elementary.

children’s creativity museum

Children’s Creativity Museum in SF held a two-week Girls in STEAM summer camp in July 2019 for girls 9 -12 years old. The program supported their conceptualization and design of original Makerspaces of “belonging”. These young designers activated their collective imaginations, self-identity, self-reflection, and empowerment to collaboratively design their vision of makerspaces.

3rd Space Lab Collective

3rd Space Lab is a collective of artists and designers from Bangalore, India and the San Francisco Bay Area. We engage artists, craft communities, designers and other disciplinary experts in exploring knowledge sharing as creative processes by creating opportunities to learn from each other’s lived experiences.
Collaborators: Lalitha Shankar, Shamala Nandesha (India); Trena Noval, Shalini Agrawal (US)

Center for Art + Public Life

Leading next generation of creative leaders to make social impact through community-engaged practice at CCA through fellowships at Bay Area organizations, community-based courses focusing on mutually beneficial partnerships, social impact grants supporting student-led projects, and community engagement workshops and scholarship.

Room for Big Ideas at YBCA

Social in Practice featured a participatory installation and archive project that presented an ongoing exploration of community-engaged practice from interviews with artists, designers, community partners, and community members. Installation revealed the commonalities and differences in process and language used by a variety of practitioners in the Bay Area, in an effort to create accessibility and understanding for a larger audience.
Collaborators: Chris Treggiari

ryse with design

RYSE with Design is a collaboration between RYSE members in Richmond CA, and California College of the Arts (CCA) architecture and design students. RYSE members and students articulated and co-designed specific spaces and environments to create a sense of belonging for RYSE members and Richmond residents at RYSE Commons Youth Center. The co-design process not only created designs of inclusivity, but also created space for vulnerability, connection and healing through creative engagements.

FIELD Design Network

FIELD (Forum for Inclusive and Equitable Leadership Diversity) Design Network supports a new generation of practitioners in public interest design through knowledge sharing, collaborative learning opportunities and partnerships. Our aim is to hold conversations that need to be happening in design.  FIELD Design Network hosts speakers and workshops in response to supporting emerging professionals in alternative practices in architecture and public interest design.

Architreasures

An arts-based community development organization reducing social isolation by creating grassroots partnership to co-design and build public space, empowering individuals to shape their future and the future of their community.

Harvard University the Future of Learning

The Future of Learning Institute at Project Zero gathers dynamic educators from around the world to engage with designers to examine how learning is changing and acquire practical tools to support deep, relevant, and long-lasting learning in a rapidly shifting educational landscape.