The People's Bus

Share your story

A movable engagement machine working with the residents of NYC, the New York City Civic Engagement Commission, and the Public Artist in Residence Yazmany Arboleda.

A temporary installation for AARP to better understand the needs of city practitioners, so AARP can improve their Livable Communities offer.

Project in Process

We are excited to share this project in process – come join us in August for the next version of the People's Festival.

The People’s Bus meets New Yorkers where they are, providing them with resources and education, facilitate dialogue, and begin to restore and strengthen relationships between local government and residents.

The People’s Bus is a process of mobilizing democracy through a sensory, arts-based approach to reimagine the public square in partnership with New Yorkers. It begins by transforming a retired City bus from the Department of Corrections into a community center on wheels that will bring education, beauty, and joy to New York City neighborhoods.

Expedition Works has been supporting the with engagement strategy, program design, installation guidance, design support, and research guidance.

Prototyping in public

Instead of coming to communities and residents with all the answers, we decided that the best way to to take a prototypoi-in-public stance, going to communities with explicit requests of what the Festival should contain, what services they need, and offer ways for residents to host their own activities.

Story Building: An opportunity to share public triumphs

The Story Building element of our installation was a mix-and-match storytelling sculpture that allowed participants to quickly and simply share solutions to city problems.

Multimodal Activities

At each Bus Stop, we want to engage with the community residents using a variety of activites. From quick pamphleting for those who don't have time, to filling out feedback forms, to coloring what the bus should look like, we wanted to provide a landscape of activites to meet people where they are.

Story Building: An opportunity to share public triumphs

The Story Building element of our installation was a mix-and-match storytelling sculpture that allowed participants to quickly and simply share solutions to city problems.

Teaching Ranked Choice Voiting, but simulating the ballot and voting procedure.

Asking for visions of what the Bus and the festival should be about by inviting residents to create a page for the People's Coloring Book.

Building a social language

We helped the CEC and the People's Bus develop and test a visual and tonal lanugage for social media posts, guiding the team in different post types, and est practices. This is an ongoing learning process for us to listen to what the community needs to hear.

Story Building: An opportunity to share public triumphs

The Story Building element of our installation was a mix-and-match storytelling sculpture that allowed participants to quickly and simply share solutions to city problems.

Hi. Expedition Works is a design consultancy (and a small-business!), where we design new services and businesses, new environments, new ways to engage with residents, and we conduct independent research.

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