Open Spaces event to provide opportunites for learning
Katlyn Campbell/Iowa State Daily
Aamid Ahbab, senior in electrical engineering, and Miriam Ruiz dance and represent the Descarga Latin Dance club during the first Open Spaces event in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union on Jan. 23. Descarga Latin Dance club holds beginner classes at Forker 213 on Tuesday’s at 7 p.m. Open Spaces is a new monthly event at Iowa State that was developed to encourage face-to-face interaction and the sharing of skills and talents on campus. The next Open Spaces event will be held Feb. 28.
January 22, 2019
Iowa State’s Department of World Languages and Cultures will debut its new diversity program, Open Spaces, from 7 to 9 p.m. on Wednesday in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union.
Open Spaces is a place for people with talents to come and teach others with and to find a new hobby. There will never be a set schedule of things to do at each event, as who shows up to teach at each event is up to them.
“The idea is to connect students [in person],” said Jean-Pierre Taoutel, senior lecturer in the Department of World Languages and Cultures.
The event is open to the public. All ages and ranges of talents are welcome; no affiliation to Iowa State is required.
The Open Spaces event was inspired by a similar practice that happens in Paris. An old building in Paris was renovated into a new space for the community. People from all backgrounds are welcome to share talents and knowledge.
“Any person with a specific skill (dance, music, sports) is invited to teach these skills to the others for free,” according to the Department of World Languages and Cultures website. “The idea is to promote cultural understanding and to break the borders between people.”
The Department of World Languages and Cultures received a $1,000 inclusion initiative grant to create this series of events.
The list of events are scheduled for Jan. 23, Feb. 28, March 26 and April 26. In in coming semesters, Taoutel said he wants to get the events scheduled on Fridays that aren’t being used by ISU Afterdark to provide a space for students to get out of the dorms.
