the public studio consortium for democratic practice

The Public Studio Consortium for Democratic Practice brings together people from diverse backgrounds, lived experiences, disciplines, and institutions. Together, they form a network of public studios dedicated to advancing democratic values, rights, and principles.

The consortium exists in response to how democratic ideals are often practiced, contested, and undermined in the world today. It also addresses the growing gap between democratic principles and the ways decisions are made about people and place.

Public studios serve as the corrective mechanism. They create open, place-based environments where people, knowledge, and decision-making are brought back into relationship through shared inquiry, design, education, and civic practice.

The consortium’s work is grounded in a transdisciplinary and multi-institutional approach. Historical inquiry, policy analysis, design practice, and community knowledge are integrated to examine decision-making structures and their real-world impacts across regions and contexts.

Through ongoing collaboration across regions and partners, the consortium produces shared resources, frameworks, and projects that inform institutions, communities, and the public. In doing so, the consortium advances democratic practice not as a fixed ideal, but as an ongoing collective responsibility rooted in study, reflection, and action in the places where decisions are made and lived.