Becoming One with the Neighborhood: Collaborative Art, Space-Making, and Urban Change in Izmir Darağaç

Darağaç is a former industrial, lower-income neighborhood in Turkey’s third-largest city, Izmir. In 2015 several artists settled in the area and started a nonprofit initiative called the Darağaç Collective (DC). DC has since organized numerous art events and exhibitions, receiving considerable interest and publicity. Yet, to date, the changes in Darağaç’s material landscapes have been subtle, and the area remains ungentrified, unlike similar examples in Turkey. This article argues that the collaborative art practice spearheaded by DC played a major role in the preservation of the neighborhood’s urban texture. The artists became neighbors with the residents, benefited from the expertise of mechanics, and drew inspiration from the site, while the local community has contributed to the production, exhibition, and appreciation of artworks. Thus, art has become a tool for sociability and a catalyst for interpersonal, cultural, and cross-class exchanges, which could offer an alternative route to art-led urban change in Turkey.

The Cost of Low-Hanging Fruit?

Through a case study of a community orchard in an affordable housing neighborhood in Portland, Oregon, we examine how the involvement of an outside nonprofit organization can transform the very notion—and composition—of community. We illustrate how the internal structures and day-to-day practices of a nonprofit privileged participation by more affluent individuals from outside the neighborhood, and ultimately subsumed a grassroots initiative, transforming it in ways that reinforced dominant power relations and created a whiter space within a diverse, low-income neighborhood. We conclude by drawing attention to the growing reflexive awareness of these issues by staff, and to their subsequent commitment to making programmatic changes that have mitigated the momentum generated by nonprofits’ funding requirements and the energy of eager outside volunteers.