"Civilization and culture are distinct. Civilization gets the job done. Culture pops up like a song. It surprises and freshens; flourishes and goes elsewhere. Culture is autonomous from civilization…Culture is a shared love for a common image like what happens in a cult among soul brothers and soul sisters. Change comes from this cultural gathering. Civilization would have us believe the change was from Athenian wise counsel. But change is something else. It is letting in something generative like Aphrodite (beauty) and Dionysus (pleasure) with light and a smile." from The work of archetypal psychology

Note to the reader: this paper has undergone a major re-writes since version 8 was posted in May of 2005.

James Hillman has nudged Providence to own its soul and destiny.  He gave the endnote talk at Transforming Urban Communities symposium in June 2005 in Providence.  The Royal Society of Art sponsored the symposium.  The talk is called “City, Soul and Myth” downloadable below. The symposium searched for new ideas, the next urban myths for cities through the door of questions.  The symposium featured no programmed solutions and only images, ideas and questions.

The 64 questions from Transforming Urban Communities inspired the birth of Providence and Beyond - an inquiry into the future of the city and region.  The search used questions to unfold the next urban mythologies.  We used 9 questions to guide us.  Hillman served as its bookends.  He kicked off the exploration in November 2005 and closed out (the mythological phase) in November 2006 and you can hear online fragments of his November 2005 talk and the full talk from 2006. You can also pull down the essays from participants that seeded the community conversation in the last AYPR meeting.

But all is not lost, AYPR gave birth to Providence and Beyond -- a  '"whole place" examination of conditions and complexities facing the city and the region.