Local Design Workshop

Past workshops
With support from a wide range of design, planning, and creative placemaking professionals, CIRD design workshops bring together local residents and local leaders from non-profits, community organizations, and government to develop actionable solutions to a specific design challenge. Workshops are facilitated by CIRD’s experienced resource team members in partnership with and driven by local people who are deeply invested in their community.
Interactive workshop activities allow community members to vote on ideas in Millinocket, Maine. Photo courtesy Malorrie Ann Photography.

“We have been working a lot on improving our community engagement strategy and CIRD has reinforced our work in a positive way... a wider range of people were engaged--beyond the scope of what groups we were able to engage before. The CIRD process helped in understanding how to broach some of the harder topics and provide an avenue to talk about them.”

— Akwesasne Mohawk Territory team member

Where we work

To date, the Citizens’ Institute on Rural Design has convened more than 80 workshops in all regions of the country, bringing together local residents with teams of design, economic development, and creative placemaking professionals. Together, professionals and citizens leverage local and regional assets to guide the design of their communities.

The 2021-2022 multi-day design workshops, offered in hybrid in-person and virtual form due to the pandemic, will focus on each community’s unique  design challenge. Dates for each workshop and members of the resource team are forthcoming.

Selected workshops communities for 2021-2022 are:
  • Boswell, Indiana
  • Mount Sterling, Kentucky
  • Two Harbors, Minnesota
  • Grenada, Mississippi
  • Thompson Falls, Montana
  • Dublin, Texas
  • Sunnyside, Washington
  • Ft. Washakie, Wyoming
Ada Adams leads a tour of important Black sites in Athens, OH during the workshop for Mt. Zion Baptist Church. Photo by Omar Hakeem.

Featured workshops

Workshops
August 3-5th, 2022
Spring Grove, MN

Living Library in Spring Grove, MN

Spring Grove 2030 is working closely with residents, local government, the public school, and more to redevelop the downtown area. CIRD’s August 3-5, local design workshop built on the momentum brought by the Spring Grove Economic Development Authority and earlier Spring Grove 2030 activities, concentrating on the conceptual development of multifunctional arts and cultural spaces that can nurture and support the intertwining needs of the local public school and broader community.
Workshops
March 22-24
Keene, NH

Revitalizing an Arts Corridor in Keene, NH

Arts Alive! is working with downtown organizations, artists, and residents to build on recent cultural development projects, including a library expansion, a new performance venue, and other community amenities. The March 22-24 CIRD workshop engaged residents to guide the design of public spaces that link these individual cultural projects to fulfill a comprehensive vision of an arts corridor, improve parking, and transform the area into an economically viable, connected, and active downtown.
Local residents vote on streetscape concepts during a workshop in Valentine, NE. Photo by P&W Photography.

Engaging expert rural design leaders

Our program is led in partnership with respected architects, landscape architects, community planners, economic development experts, and transportation planners, many of whom live and work in rural places and are passionate about their work. CIRD strives to connect workshop communities with both national and local or regional expertise. If you are a designer interested in working with CIRD, contact cird@ruralhome.org.
Lizzie MacWillie from bcWORKSHOP leads a session in Millinocket, ME. Photo by Malorrie Ann Photography.

Workshop stories

Stories
July 27, 2022

Incremental Steps to Big Impact in Frederiksted

CIRD’s May 2022 local design workshop in Frederiksted, St. Croix, focused on reviving and reimagining a historic fish market. But far from being a culminating event or end point, the CIRD workshop is one notable stop along the way to broader community revitalization in this beautiful and historic small town.
Stories
January 20, 2022

Bringing Back to Life a Community Hub in Midway, Alabama

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.

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