Gathering Spaces When No One Can Gather: Art and Community Third Places in the Age of Covid-19

Abstract

What do art and community spaces look like when no one can use them to gather? Academic research into neighbourhoods and urban art scenes have focused on the power of such spaces to bring people together. Using the framework of Oldenburg's notion of 'third places', sociologists have recognized the importance of places like art galleries, bars, restaurants, coff ee shops, and anywhere else people gather in providing a physical site of orientation outside work and the home for people to be together and communities to amalgamate. While there have always been critiques of such places and their role in urban space, e.g.their part in gentri fication and potential displacement, positive accounts of their role in neighbourhood life have typically focused on their ability to draw people together, so a situation like the current pandemic – when such gatherings are forestalled – raises an obvious question about their current utility. Using two case studies on the South Side of Chicago, this paper leverages interview data with merchants involved with sociallyengaged commercial spaces to examine some of the ways that community spaces in Chicago shifted in light of the pandemic. The article concludes with policy and theoretical considerations based on these case studies, extrapolating lessons beyond the South Side of Chicago. Speci fically, it suggests that in addition to off ering limited versions of their traditional facilitation of physical co-presence, art and community third places can also leverage their importance in social networks to help distribute information and resources.