Inside the Experiences - Common Circles

“We Are...! Bridging, Belonging, & Building Community” – The Traveling Experience

Common Circles has created an innovative, traveling, educational, museum experience that uses the arts, technology, and storytelling to teach about the Holocaust, antisemitism, our multi-layered identities, and the importance of finding our shared humanity.

The exhibit is currently on display at Rye Country Day School and is open to visitors by appointment by contacting info@commoncircles.org. This experience will be expanding to additional schools and community spaces.

Meet the White Plains Community

Common Circles launched the “We Are...“ exhibit in the White Plains School District, and then brought a variation of the exhibit along with professional development to E.O Smith High School in Storrs, Connecticut. Common Circles then partnered with Rye Country Day (RCDS) and American Jewish Committee (AJC) to update and scale the exhibit. This enhanced exhibit is now on display at RCDS and is open to visitors by appointment. This experience will be expanding to additional schools and community spaces. To sign up for public tours, arrange a private viewing, or find out how you can bring this experience to your school, business, municipality, or community, please contact us at info@commoncircles.org.

Designed to be immersive, interactive, and adaptable for different communities, this customizable, two-part exhibit is embedded into the walls and rooms in schools and community spaces.

Part 1:

Bridging, Belonging, & Building Community

This first part of the exhibit introduces the themes of bridging, belonging, and othering and fosters respectful dialogue. Utilizing art, photography, optical illusions, and storytelling, the exhibit prompts students and other visitors to think about our multilayered identities, varying perspectives, and first impressions. Students and community members are encouraged to listen to each other’s stories, find connection, and recognize our shared humanity.

Meet the White Plains Community

Part 2:

Voices Against Hate: Lessons from the Holocaust

This second part of the exhibit features our partner USC Shoah Foundation’s groundbreaking Interactive Biographies, which allow students and others to engage in lifelike conversations with a Holocaust survivor and Jewish American liberator.

In this immersive environment, visitors not only hear their first-hand accounts, but can ask them questions — bringing history to life in a way that is deeply personal and impactful. In this section, students learn about the Holocaust, Jewish identity, and how to define, recognize, and combat antisemitism in today’s world. This part also highlights local stories of survivors and liberators showing that these stories are not just distant history but woven into the fabric of our community.

Common Circles, in partnership with RCDS and AJC, has received a prestigious grant from the Claims Conference: Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany to study the impact of the exhibit on students and teachers through a multi-year study. The independent impact evaluation conducted by social impact firm Third Plateau will gauge expansion in knowledge and understanding around the Holocaust and antisemitism, as well as increase in empathy and desire and ability to build community and bridge differences.

Meet the White Plains Community

Meet the White Plains Community

“When you see the exhibit in person and your mood immediately begins to lift, you know. When you hear the unbridled excitement of students of all ages as they see images of the adults in their community, you know. When your colleagues, who are all busy and short on time, just linger in the space, soaking it all in, you know. Immediately you know that what binds us as a community is personal — rooted in identity, authentic representation, and feeling a sense of belonging. We cannot belong if we are not seen. This exhibit is unlike any other for schools that prioritize community. In a world of increasing polarization and echo chambers, Common Circles challenges us in fun and creative ways to explore the beautiful things that make each of us unique and, along the way, find our commonalities. It fills me with hope that we can one day live in a world where hate simply cannot exist. Our partnership with Common Circles is invaluable.”

Meredith deChabert

RCDS Assistant Head of School

Meet the White Plains Community

“Common Circles is a wonderful initiative that dovetails with our active approach to building awareness and educating our community about antisemitism and other forms of hate. This work is critical, as we strive for a more inclusive, connected world. We Are RCDS is a beautiful, thought-provoking celebration of the range of identities in our community. It is an affirmation of RCDS’s commitment to inclusion and combating hate through education, connection, and mutual respect.”

Randall Dunn

RCDS Head of School

Meet the White Plains Community

“More than ever, we need to support each other and protect our communities from the insidious toxicity of bigotry and hatred. As community members, we have the power to break down barriers of division and replace them with bridges to understanding and mutual respect. Our partnership with Common Circles has allowed our children and our community the opportunity to elevate their voices and shared commitment to each other. “We Are White Plains!” embodies our commitment to each and every member of our city while celebrating and honoring the unique and beautiful qualities of every member of our vibrant learning community.”

Dr. Joseph Ricca

Superintendent, White Plains School District

The Common Circles Interactive Art Experience

Common Circles developed a community art experience specifically designed for corporations and educational communities (middle school, high school, and college students, faculty, administrators, and staff).

Using cutting-edge technology and proven techniques for reducing bias, the Common Circles Interactive Art Experience engages participants with photo-capturing, interactive devices that encourage identity exploration. The experience culminates with a large, cycling video wall that provides unexpected insights to challenge preconceptions. The purpose of this experience is to inspire greater cohesion and harmony and to help participants consider one another’s personalities and perspectives in more layered and nuanced ways.

The Common Circles App

Our new Identity & Belonging App will revolutionize the way education is deployed by corporations, schools, government offices, police departments, and other organizations by tackling bias, lack of inclusion, and feelings of belonging in a new and inventive way.

In stark contrast to traditional training programs that are not scalable and take place once or twice a year, this app presents convenient, self-directed experiences that can be used on a daily basis. The core premise is that regular exposure to micro-bursts of powerful and emotive video content will provide a more effective and palatable way to engage in the work necessary to build more inclusive and equitable communities and more cohesive and productive work forces.

The app features hundreds of curated videos and interactive experiences, as well as personalized expert advice that can be configured to meet organizational needs and match user preferences. Think of it as the Spotify of identity, belonging, diversity, equity, and inclusion content. The app and its video content are being designed and vetted by a panel of top D&I experts, social scientists, learning psychologists and subject matter professionals. Metrics will be used to measure changes in attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors.

Experts believe the app will increase empathy, decrease bias, and foster a greater sense of belonging in corporations, schools and other community organizations, which will lead to a measurable impact in both ROI and SROI (social return on investment).

Step into the shoes of others

The Workshop & Game Jam

Imagined for students by students

Common Circles designed, developed, and implemented an identity and game workshop for high school students in St. Louis, Missouri. Students from seven area high schools came together to learn about identity, unconscious bias, and the fundamentals of game design. Using techniques from psychology that have been proven to increase empathy and decrease bias, the students then worked collaboratively alongside game designers and experts on bias and intergroup relations to create games to address these difficult topics in an engaging way. The students generated innovative and viable ideas, including a card game called Common Threads that was further developed and is now part of the “We Are...!” exhibit and curriculum.

group of students in workshop to develop a game to teach about bias and identity

The Common Threads Game

Common Threads is an innovative multi-player character card game linking Stephen Curry and P!nk in less than five minutes.

Developed by high school students, the Common Threads card game highlights the richness of both personal and social identities, and seeks to find connection and commonalities across lines of difference. The character cards address the many layers of identity among various historical and public figures, artists, celebrities, scientists, athletes, and musicians.

The game uses several proven methods from psychology including “finding commonality,” a technique that tasks players to explore commonalities among the varied 100-character card deck. This highlights that our identities are multi-layered and shaped by a variety of factors, allowing us to focus on our commonalities and connections. Experts agree that this identity work is a crucial starting point in the difficult but vital education necessary to ensure inclusive schools, workplaces, and organizations. The Common Threads card game is being integrated into curriculum in classrooms and other organizations as part of the “We Are...!” exhibit and curriculum.

Inspire communities of belonging

The goal is for students, teachers, families, individuals, businesses and institutions — all people across all generations — to leave with the tools needed to transform old destructive behavior based on fear and bias into thoughtful and authentic empathy and positive action. Common Circles experiences are places where technology meets people and people meet people, opening minds and inspiring individuals to make positive changes in their lives and the lives of others.