Civic Design Lab: Democracy as a Living System

The Civic Design Lab is an experimental makerspace where community members, nonprofit leaders, and civic actors come together to practice creativity as a tool for democracy and resilience.

Rather than aiming to “solve” problems directly, the Lab invites participants to exercise civic imagination — treating our perspectives and mindsets like muscles that grow stronger through use. Through creative constraints, collaborative art practices, and playful experimentation, participants expand their capacity to engage with complexity and see familiar challenges in new ways.

What Happens in a Lab Session?

• Guided creative exercises rooted in art-making, storytelling, and systems thinking

• Cross-sector collaboration among diverse participants

• Reflection on how creativity shapes resilience, belonging, and civic life

• Opportunities to prototype new perspectives and imagine alternatives

Each Lab session is designed to feel both rigorous and joyful — blending the seriousness of our civic challenges with the playful curiosity needed to approach them differently.

Why Civic Design?

We live in a moment of overlapping pressures — political polarization, climate crisis, economic inequality, and social fragmentation. The Civic Design Lab does not offer ready-made answers. Instead, it creates a regenerative process: a place to practice, to imagine, and to prepare ourselves and our communities to respond with creativity and resilience.

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Five-Session Journey

(Sessions are free.  Apply to join all five or individual sessions.)

Session 1 — Democracy, But Make It Regenerative

From extractive systems to living ecosystems — reimagining governance as a regenerative practice.

Session 2 — Reality Check: The State of Democracy Now

A candid mapping of polarization, burnout, and what still holds communities together.

Session 3 — If Democracy Had a Vision Board

Collage, constraints, and creative play to imagine civic futures we can actually feel.

Session 4 — From Vision to Practice

Exploring small-scale civic rituals, prototypes, and practices that translate imagination into action.

Session 5 — Civic Design Lab: Democracy IRL

A live makerspace for experimenting with regenerative practices and collective imagination.

To apply to join any of these free sessions, email daniela@fieldandformca.com.

Tidewings Art Retreats

Tidewings is the creative wing of Field + Form, a space for art, storytelling and seasonal practice. Where Field + Form engages civic design and resilience, Tidewings turns toward the inner and communal worlds of imagination, offering gatherings that honor creativity as a source of grounding and renewal.

Autumn 2025 Workshops at Henry Miller Library

This autumn, Tidewings brings three seasonal workshops to Big Sur, each one an invitation to create symbolic objects that carry us through the darker months. These gatherings combine hands-on artmaking with seasonal reflection and community connection at Henry Miller Library.

Nov 30 — Reservoirs of Light | Lantern-Making Workshop

Dec 7 — Winter Cartography | Textile Mapping Workshop

December 14 — Solstice Vessels | Beeswax Luminary Workshop

Sundays, 1:00–4:00 PM | Limited to 15 participants per session

$95 per workshop | $250 for all three (save $35)

Workshops may be attended individually or as a complete three-part series. All materials included.

A portion of proceeds supports Housing for School Kids, providing permanent housing opportunities for public school students and their families in Monterey County.

Register on Eventbrite

About Tidewings

Rooted on the Monterey coast, Tidewings retreats weave together the tactile and the contemplative — clay, textiles, lantern light, and mythic storytelling — with the deeper rhythms of season and community. Each gathering balances creative play with depth, offering participants a chance to slow down, reconnect with creativity, and cultivate belonging.

Through hands-on art-making, reflective writing, and embodied exercises, Tidewings offers space to restore, imagine, and carry new forms of beauty and resilience into daily life.

Open to all, regardless of experience. For inquiries, email daniela@fieldandformca.com.