Cultural Audit is a rigorous iterative research methodology conceived from a creative, social engagement process and a commitment to civic responsibility. Cultural Audit is used anywhere that technology, the built environment, strategy, and communications intersect with end users.

At the conceptual phase of an idea, I embed myself within a neighborhood or group to move beyond typical a community engagement process.  Through conversations with community stake holders, residents, 9-5 professionals and the occasional visitor, I am able to present the diverse voices of a neighborhood via audio recording, video, and still image. I conduct field work engagements with K-12 schools, senior centers, the shops and public spaces accessed by the neighborhood of focus. I conduct this field work during week days, and weekends mornings, afternoons and evenings. This practice ignites constituent framed engagements that lead to a genuine collaborative and participatory design process.

The programming and design phases benefit from Cultural Audit. Working with constituent groups as part of a solutions focused design process, Cultural Audit continues to reveal user-group attitudes and positioning in real-time, offering insights as ideas take form through community driven strategies by asking “this is what I heard - is this what I heard?” I facilitate fully accessible public process meetings serving the community or group where they live, and at times that serve the community. I present media created with and by the consituent community to ensure the consituent community is at the center of a project, as the agent of the project.

Cultural Audit is a valuable tool in the post design phase of a project, supplying first-hand testimony and documentation of the project results in real life.

By carefully listening, learning, and exploring the contextual framework of constituent communities, Cultural Audit partners with neighborhoods to build structures of empowerment, agency, and representation.

“If you can find a better process of community engagement for a city-sponsored housing initiative than the one undertaken by the Denver Housing Authority for Mariposa, I'd like to see it.”

- Kaid Benfield’s Blog, Switchboard Natural Resources Defense Council

2017 - 303 ArtWay - client: Urban Land Conservancy, Denver, CO.

2016/ 17 - Content Generation - client: WSL Strategic Retail, New York, NY.

2015 - River North Park - client: City of Denver, Colorado

2015 - National Site Research - client: WSL Strategic Retail, New York, NY

2011 - River Front Master Plan - client: City of St. Paul, St. Paul Minnesota

2010 - Cultural District Overlay - client: City of Seattle, Seattle Washington

2010 - State Center Redevelopment Master Plan - client: City of Baltimore, Maryland

2010 - Mixed Use Housing, Retail, TOD Master Plan - client: City of Austin, Austin Texas

2010 - Public Housing Master Plan - client: City of Oregon, Oregon City Oregon

2010 - Public Housing Master Plan - client: City of Port Angeles, Port Angeles, Washington

2009 - Public Housing Master Plan - client: City of Minneapolis, Minneapolis Minnesota

2009 - Public Art Assessment - client: City of Bellevue, Bellevue Washington

2009 - Mixed Use Housing, Retail, TOD Master Plan - client: City of Denver, Denver Colorado

2008 - Stephen Epler Hall, Post Occupancy Evaluation - client: Portland State University, Portland Oregon

2006 - New Orleans Compact International Conference, New Orleans Louisiana - client: Global Green, Santa Monica California

Cultural Audit is a woman-owned business.

For more information, contact Laura Curry, creator of Cultural Audit.