We started Third Place Nights this past April as a way to engage our local neighborhood artists and creative-minds through a monthly community gathering. It’s an amazing opportunity to connect, create, converse, otherwise share in the passion of others, all while having a great time too, and we like that part, a lot.
We’ve been asked quite a bit about the naming of Third Place Nights, and what exactly a Third Place is, so here’s a bit more about this global movement. Our council has seemingly been focused on global movements recently, like our recent White Night festival and Third Places, as we continue to take the lead as both a community voice and cultural advocate.
The third place is a term used in the concept of community building to refer to social surroundings separate from the two usual social environments of home and the workplace. In his influential book The Great Good Place, Ray Oldenburg (1989, 1991) argues that third places are important for civil society, democracy, civic engagement, and establishing feelings of a sense of place.
Oldenburg calls one’s “first place” the home and those that one lives with. The “second place” is the workplace — where people may actually spend most of their time. Third places, then, are “anchors” of community life and facilitate and foster broader, more creative interaction. All societies already have informal meeting places; what is new in modern times is the intentionality of seeking them out as vital to current societal needs. Oldenburg suggests these hallmarks of a true “third place”: free or inexpensive; food and drink, while not essential, are important; highly accessible: proximate for many (walking distance); involve regulars – those who habitually congregate there; welcoming and comfortable; both new friends and old should be found there.
From WIKIPEDIA
We’ve made great commitments this past year to support completely free & open programming offerings, and Third Place Nights is yet another example of what we can do together, as a unified and proactive community.
So, all you need to do is join in, make some noise, and we’ll look forward to seeing you all at the next Third Place Nights, Wednesday, July 21st, from 7-9pm, at the ever accessible and walkable, The BrickHouse Community Arts Center.
