Next month, the Van Alen Institute is launching Elsewhere: Escape and the Urban Landscape, a new, multi-year inquiry of competitions, public programs, and research to explore the experience of escape in the urban environment.

Elsewhere will guide the Institute’s upcoming competitions, public programs, and research to investigate key questions of the contemporary urban experience: How and why do we escape from urban life? What prompts us to escape to the city? What forms of escape can we find within the urban environment? And how might the experience of going “elsewhere” contribute to our well-being?

In the coming months, they will be launching new competitions, research projects, and public events that delve into the dynamics of both physical and mental escape—from recreation in the city to population loss and vacancy, access to green space, the psychological effects of urbanization, and more. Through Elsewhere, they will expand a lens beyond the city to analyze the life and form of the suburban, semi-urban, and rural landscapes of the extended urban environment. Read more about Elsewhere.

Van Alen will kick off Elsewhere with four days of festival-style programs, running from November 12–17, 2013, at the Institute and select venues throughout New York City. We’re thrilled to be collaborating with an interdisciplinary group of participants and organizations including Performa, ISSUE Project Room, Cohabitation Strategies, Columbia University Astronomy Outreach, and Columbia University School of the Arts. With offerings including performances, conversations, tours, installations, talks and workshops, the Institute’s fall lineup will engage a diverse range of topics to provoke, enlighten, question, and critically examine the ideas ofElsewhere.

Find out more about our upcoming events, and be sure to register as space will be limited! All programs are free, with the exception of our ticketed kick-off event on Friday, November 12. Visitwww.vanalen.org/elsewhere to find out more.