Four workshops across the country will bring together local leaders and residents with design professionals to work on a local design challenge. The members of the Design Learning Cohort come from 15 communities as diverse as Skagway, Alaska and Manchester, Georgia.

The Citizens’ Institute on Rural Design recently partnered with the community of Keene, NH, to reinvigorate an arts corridor initiative that drives broader downtown economic development. And while the arts have long bolstered rural economies, CIRD’s work in Keene comes with a twist. Arts Alive!, a non-profit organization working to sustain the arts community across the Monadnock region, developed a close-knit and diverse project steering committee to partner with CIRD’s local design workshop team. Together they marshaled local resources around the Arts Core concept, aiming to generate an economic development plan that goes way beyond a typical rural arts strategy.

CIRD has been working with the community of Midway, Alabama to transform a shuttered school into a multifaceted community services hub and entrepreneurship center. After engaging remotely, the CIRD team traveled to Midway in early December 2021 for an in-person design workshop with over 70 residents to solidify plans for the Merritt Community Complex.