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The purpose of this paper is to identify the value of the arts play in public spaces in replicating a contemporary commons.

The study is an exploratory investigation which uses a case study of cultural events in public parks – the Vancouver Parks Board’s fieldhouse residency program (2012-2015). The study uses content analysis of the social media sites created for these projects to identify how the sites and the cultural events were valued by stakeholders and participants.

The paper finds that, in combination, the park events and the social media discussion of them function as a form of the commons, in which new urban communities are formed or defined around specific common social interests.

The paper finds that, in combination, the park events and the reflective engagement prompted by the social media discussion of them function as a form of the commons, in which new urban communities are formed or defined around specific common social interests.

It is anticipated that cultural programs will increasingly interact with common public places.

The study supports the increased use of and recognition of public places as culturally significant.

The study aims to encourage the expansion of arts and cultural policy and programs to incorporate common public places.

The purpose of this study was to use Watkins and Marsick model of a learning organization (1993, 1996), the dimensions of the learning organization questionnaire as a framework for interdisciplinary network collaboration and knowledge sharing.

The research team used a mixed-methods approach for data collection. Survey data was collected from 181 networks. In addition, data was collected from two focus groups with six participants each.

Results, in general, showed that the learning organization culture could be used as a framework for interdisciplinary network collaboration. In particular, results showed that shared vision, imbedded systems and knowledge sharing were key driving forces required for successful collaboration.

Theoretical and practical implications were discussed, and conditions for learning organization culture for networks were established.

People in a network era need more than training; they need ongoing, interdisciplinary, collaborative support to solve complex problems. Organizations can only work effectively if barriers to organizational learning were removed. This originality of this paper lies in applying learning organization framework at the network level.