Writers, musicians, actors, filmmakers, designers, and other culture-makers spend their lives imagining new possibilities. What happens when they turn that creative power toward civic life?
The Future Won't Imagine Itself
We live at a time when corruption, greed, control, prejudice, boorishness, and denial are idealized.
Often weaponized.
Most of us recognize this. Many of us write about it. Some of us are able to pinpoint the causes.
Few of us envision solutions.
What happens when writers, musicians, actors, dancers, filmmakers, visual artists, designers, storytellers, and other culture-makers deliberate and imagine a healthier democracy?
Res Creativa is about to find out.
The Work Begins
We believe creative people possess ways of seeing, questioning, connecting, and envisioning that are urgently needed in civic life.
Our challenge is not a lack of imagination. It is that imagination often remains scattered across disciplines, communities, and individual practices.
With more than ninety founders now involved, we are ready to bring those perspectives together.
Founders: later this week, you’ll receive a direct email from me with several opportunities to join online conversations. We’ll offer multiple ways to participate, designed to accommodate different interests, schedules, and levels of availability.
Thank you for helping shape what comes next.
A version of this post was originally published on Substack, Jun. 30, 2026
Banner image: Jan van der Straet, called Stradanus, “Lapis Polaris Magnes (Invention of the Compass), plate 2 of the Nova Reperta (New Inventions for Modern Times)” (ca. 1590), Cooper Hewitt Museum purchase through gift of Samuel P. Avery, CC0
