A community that supports transformation

Are you dedicated to growing your practice of playful inquiry?

Are you seeking an antidote to the isolation so often felt by practitioners who believe play, meaning-making, and the rights of children should be prioritized in school?

Are you an educator committed to re-imagining environments and experiences for learning that promote joy, creativity, and the wonder of learning?

Are you a school leader hoping to support colleagues as they reimagine their work?

You've found a global community dedicated to mutual mentorship towards responding to those questions in your unique context.

Contact Susan and Matt here.

Join the Studio

Studios are places where people come together to experiment: to imagine greater possibilities, try out new ideas, and share experiences investigating pathways that include immersion in the arts, investment in play, and sharing stories.

The Studio for Playful Inquiry is an online community filled with colleagues eager to grow with you. Here, you’ll find inspiring, provocative invitations that spur meaningful conversation and exchange, catalyze reflection, and encourage innovation. It's slow pd: for the price of a workshop, you get a year of evolving and deepening connection. 

Members come from all parts of the world, teaching and leading in a wide range of schools for children (usually ages 3 to 11, but sometimes younger and sometimes older.) We share images and stories, read, watch, and listen to a range of texts, and connect with each other through an inviting platform and realtime meet-ups. Together, we support each other to create the kinds of learning communities upon which healthy living depends.

Learn about membership plans here.

What do members say?

In The Studio this month

Each month we explore a "through line" of interest to members around the world. This month we’re exploring  how we can strengthen our capacity to weather - and even make friends with - uncertainty.

We’ll deepen our study through conversation with Portland-based teacher Levia Friedman, reading a variety of texts by teacher-researcher Karen Gallas, and exploring the language of kinetic sculpture with arts educator Kathryn Ann Myers.

A new course!

May’s immersive short course supports your agency, inquiry, and advocacy, guiding you through identifying and developing the story you want to tell about your work.

Learn more (and register) here.

Expand your leadership capacity

You are invited to join a small global cohort dedicated to constructing pathways for playful inquiry to grow joy, meaning, and courage.

Learn more here.

Not ready to join? Get on the list!

Click here to be added to our mailing list. We send frequent newsletters with essays, links to relevant articles and other interesting things, and keep you updated on ways to get involved with the Center for Playful Inquiry and its Studio.

Who is behind this project?

Learn more about Susan Harris MacKay, Matt Karlsen, and ways to engage with the Center for Playful Inquiry here.

Susan and Matt are dedicated to removing barriers to participation. If you'd like to discuss group registration discounts, pay-over-time plans, need-based discounts, or anything else, don't hesitate to drop us a line.