When 34 people said yes to becoming Res Creativa founding members they did so before they knew exactly what they were saying yes to.
I read every response, and then I read them again.
What came back wasn’t a list of credentials or demands. It was something quieter and more durable. A consistent expression of belief that Res Creativa can be real, a desire to be part of it, and a simple question about where to show up.
This Substack post (along with my next four posts) will speak to a series of initiatives Res Creativa could build. Not all at once, and not quickly, but deliberately … and together.
RES CREATIVA IDEA 1
A Civic Leadership Program for Creative Practitioners
Creative Practitioners Inside Public Systems
Programs like Leadership Atlanta have operated for decades on a simple idea: Bring together people who are likely to shape a city, give them direct access to how it works, and allow relationships to develop that outlast the program itself.
Res Creativa could build an equivalent for creative practitioners: poets, architects, composers, filmmakers, choreographers, game designers, and others whose work centers on producing meaning.
This would not be a retreat or a conference. It would be a cohort-based program that places artists inside civic systems such as city councils, school boards, public health agencies, and neighborhood planning processes, where consequential decisions are made.
What this would mean for you as a creator:
Step out of isolation and into a visible, collective force, where your creative intelligence is not just expressed but applied to shape the systems and futures you live inside.
What this would mean for our humanity:
Bring the sensitivity, imagination, and experience of artists into the heart of civic life so our cities become more perceptive, more humane, and more capable of imagining better futures.
Several of you said you want to use your skills in service of something larger while also maintaining your time to “make art.” This would be a clear way to do that.
What We Need from You Now
When creative practitioners enter public systems, they expand the range of perspectives that democratic decision‑making can draw from.
That is how democratic capacity grows.
If a civic leadership program for creative practitioners intrigues you as one of five starting points for our “creative republic,” let me know joining Res Creativa.
Your response will help determine how we organize the initial phase of this work and where to focus early energy.
Oh, and here is a teaser for Res Creativa Idea 2, coming tomorrow. It’s a doozy:
A Plan. An Actual Plan. A Usable Civic Blueprint
We need a living, working plan to reintegrate arts, culture, empathy, and public education into civic life. Think of it as a countervailing document to the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025.
Let’s help restore humanity and democracy through our collective and creative talents.
The Founding Series (May 7–11, 2026): Five essays exploring the first structural ideas that eventually evolved into Res Creativa.
A version of this post was originally published on Substack, May 7, 2026
Banner image: Seymour Fogel, Security of the People (1942), Commissioned by the U.S. Treasury Section of Fine Arts, Fine Arts Collection, U.S. General Services Administration. Located at the Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building, Washington, DC. Photograph by Carol M. Highsmith, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, No known restrictions on publication.
