Through the Parks Foundation’s always-free Next Generation of Parks™ events, global design innovators and thought-leaders showcase the most exciting new parks destinations, opportunities, and research and delve into important issues of place affecting the Twin Cities community today.
In 2010, the Minneapolis Parks Foundation helped jump start a conversation about parks design and city-building with our first Next Generation of Parks™ Event Series, hosting landscape designers and park advocates whose work includes The High Line in New York and London’s Green Grid. We have produced a lecture series nearly every year since, always with the goal of demystifying the impact of great design – inspiring thousands to be champions for dynamic, vibrant public space in Minneapolis and throughout the region
Join us for the 2023-2024 Season
Blackwaters, Film Screening and Discussion
May 16, 2024
In partnership with the Cultural Wellness Center, Melanin in Motion, Minneapolis Institute of Art, and the University of Minnesota Department of Forest Resources, the Minneapolis Parks Foundation, we screened the new documentary film by Chad Brown, Blackwaters. After the film, Anthony Taylor led a Q&A style discussion with members of the Blackwaters cast and creators, Dudley Edmondson and James Edward Mills, to talk about the power of BIPOC individuals in wild places, the intersectionality of race and gender, walking through struggle, and who caught the biggest fish. Thank you for your participation in this wonderful evening!
Produced in Partnership with:
With Sponsorship From:
Additional support from the University of Minnesota comes from: Bell Museum, College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resources Sciences, Department of African American & African Studies, Department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology, Department of Forest Resources, Environmental Sciences, Policy and Management major, Humphrey School of Public Affairs, Water Resources Center, and the School of Social Work.
The State of Our Parks, with Superintendent Al Bangoura
December 14, 2023
Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board Superintendent Al Bangoura spoke on the extraordinary history and scope of Minneapolis’s award-winning park system, and the exciting vision for its future. From the growing role data plays in improving daily parks services, to the revolution of creative play taking place at Spark’d Studios, to the community vision driving new capital investments at North Commons Park and beyond, Bangoura’s inspiring presentation only deepened our appreciation and understanding of what’s possible in the parks.
Watch the video recording of this presentation on Vimeo!
About The Speaker
Alfred K Bangoura is the Superintendent of Parks for the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board (MPRB), a nationally acclaimed independently governed park system with a nine-member elected Board of park commissioners. Recognized by Twin Cities Business as one of their 2023 TCB 100 influencers, Bangoura is a thought leader on the role of parks in the public realm, and is a member of the esteemed American Academy of Park and Recreation Administration (AAPRA). An active board member with the Minneapolis Parks Foundation, Bangoura serves as co-chair and workstream leader of the Minneapolis Downtown Council and the Minneapolis Downtown Improvement District’s 2035 Vision: Health Care, Human Services and Wellness Committee. As parks superintendent, Bangoura maintains fiscal stewardship over the MPRB’s $156 million budget in addition to operations of the MPRB’s 14 departments focused on communications, community connections and violence prevention, park police, planning, asset management, environmental management, forestry, planning, recreation, finance, human resources, information technology and visitor services.
Thank You to Our 2023-2024 Sponsors
Join Us As a Sponsor Today!
Email Jennifer Downham at jdownham@mplsparksfoundation.org
to learn more about sponsorship opportunities. Thank you!
From the 2022-2023 Season
Healing Severed Connections, with José González, Founder of Latino Outdoors
May 4, 2023 / Watch the video on Vimeo!
Play and Restoration in Our Post-Pandemic World, with Mikyoung Kim, FASLA
March 30, 2023 / Watch the video on Vimeo or YouTube
You can watch all of the Next Generation of Parks presentations (2010-2023) recorded on our YouTube and Vimeo channels.
Past Presenters:
- Sabina Ali, Co-Founder & Chair, Thorncliffe Park Women’s Committee
- Adam Regn Arvidson, author of Wild & Rare: Tracking Endangered Species in the Upper Midwest
- Paul Bauknight, Project Implementation Director, Minneapolis Parks Foundation
- Gia Biagi, Principal of Urbanism, Studio Gang
- Monica Bryand, wildlife photographer and Executive Director of Urban Bird Collective
- Kofi Boone, Joseph D. Moore Distinguished Professor and University Faculty Scholar in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning at North Carolina State University
- Bruce Chamberlain, Minneapolis Parks Fellow, Minneapolis Parks Foundation
- Maurice Cox, Detroit City Planner
- Roger Cummings, Co-Founder & Creative Director, Juxtaposition Arts
- Jamie Dean, Principal Designer and Program Manager of London’s Green Grid
- Dudley Edmondson, wildlife photographer and author of Black & Brown Faces in America’s Wild Places
- José González, Founder of Latino Outdoors
- Adriaan Geuze, WEST 8
- Robert Hammond, Friends of the High Line
- Eelco Hooftman, GROSS.MAX
- Mark Johnson, co-founder and principal, Civitas
- Mikyoung Kim, FASLA, founding principal of Boston-based Mikyoung Kim Design
- Janet Lansbury, parenting expert and author
- Tom Leader of Tom Leader Studio with Sheila Kennedy of KVA Architects
- Tabitha Montgomery, Executive Director, Powderhorn Park Neighborhood Association
- Laurie Olin, founding principal of OLIN
- Kate Orff, Founder & Principal, SCAPE Landscape Design
- Gil Penalosa, Founder and Chair of the Board, 8 80 Cities
- Sean Sherman, Founder and CEO, The Sioux Chef
- Mitchell J. Silver, Commissioner, NYC Parks and Recreation
- Dr. Marla Spivak, Founder, Spivak Honey Bee Lab, University of Minnesota
- Ambreen Tariq, outdoorswoman, founder of @BrownPeopleCamping, author of Fatima’s Great Outdoors
- Lisa Tziona Switkin, of James Corner Field Operations
- Dana Thompson, Co-owner & COO, The Sioux Chef
- Florence Williams, Journalist and author of The Nature Fix: How Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier and More Creative
- Lily Yeh, Founder, Barefoot Artists
- Dr. Robert Zarr, Park Rx America