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Kenan Arts and MUSE Winston-Salem Announce Workshop with Civic Imagination Leader Michael Rohd
Registration is now open for "Building Trust, Imagining Futures," a three-day facilitation workshop led by nationally recognized theater-maker and civic imagination practitioner Michael Rohd. The workshop is co-hosted by the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts (Kenan Arts) and MUSE Winston-Salem (MUSEws).
Designed for individuals who facilitate, teach, lead, or guide groups across a range of contexts—including classrooms, arts organizations, public engagement initiatives, community meetings, and civic or organizational settings—the workshop invites participants from all sectors, both within Winston-Salem and beyond.
"Building Trust, Imagining Futures" will take place May 27–29, 2026, at MUSE Winston-Salem’s newly renovated facility at 226 S. Liberty Street in downtown Winston-Salem.
Rohd brings more than 35 years of experience as a theater-maker and facilitator, working nationally to support dialogue around complex public issues and to train municipal and nonprofit leaders in designing effective, inclusive engagement processes.
This workshop marks Rohd’s return to Winston-Salem and Forsyth County following his three-year collaboration with the local site team and Kenan Arts on the One Nation/One Project initiative—a national arts and health effort designed to activate the power of the arts to repair the social fabric and support community well-being.
“Many of the challenges facing our communities today require thoughtful, cross-sector solutions,” said Kevin Bitterman, Executive Director of the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts. “We’re honored to partner with MUSE Winston-Salem in welcoming Michael Rohd back to Winston-Salem—building on our previous work together—and to share tools that help artists, educators, and civic leaders create space for dialogue, trust, and collective imagination.”
Dr. Mike Wakeford, Executive Director of MUSE Winston-Salem and faculty member in the Division of Liberal Arts at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, emphasized the alignment between the two organizations. “There is a deep kinship between Rohd’s use of the arts to foster civic dialogue and MUSEws’ mission to build community through history and storytelling,” he said.
Registration for the workshop is $200, with participants responsible for travel and lodging. Lunch will be provided each day by the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts.
Whether you are starting out as a facilitator or have been leading conversations and group process for years, this workshop equips participants with tools to design and shape experience, help groups productively accomplish goals, and move through difficult moments when they arise. The workshop is structured as six sequential three-hour workshops that focus on curiosity, deep listening, boundary setting, the transformative power of understanding context and purpose, and specific strategies for navigating the challenges your participants will encounter within themselves, and with each other.
For more information about Michael Rohd, the workshop, and to register, visit: https://michaelrohd.com/summer-2026-facilitation-workshops/
For inquiries, please contact the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts at [email protected]
About Michael Rohd:
Michael Rohd is a theatre-maker, educator, facilitator, and process designer whose work bridges artmaking, civic practice, and public engagement. For more than 30 years, he has led cross-sector initiatives that bring cultural strategies to education, community planning, and public health, with a focus on advancing civic imagination and dialogue.
He has trained K–12 educators nationwide in facilitation and classroom culture, and his book Theatre for Community, Conflict, and Dialogue has been widely used since 1999. In higher education, he has held tenured faculty positions at Northwestern University and Arizona State University, and currently serves as a Professor at the University of Montana, where he leads the Lab for Civic Imagination.
Rohd’s public health work began with founding Hope Is Vital in 1992 and has expanded to partnerships with national health institutions. From 2022 to 2025, he served as Civic Collaborations Director for One Nation/One Project, supporting arts-based initiatives in 18 U.S. communities.
About the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts (Kenan Arts):
Artists change the way we see the world. At the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts, we make space for that change to happen. From our home at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, we support artists, spark collaboration, and connect creative communities across the Southeast and beyond. For more than three decades, Kenan Arts has backed bold ideas, nurtured partnerships, and helped the arts thrive in times of challenge and transformation. By expanding pathways to creativity for artists, students, and communities, we continue that work with a clear vision for a world where artists are valued, and creativity is a driving force for change. For more information, visit www.uncsa.edu/kenan.
About MUSE Winston-Salem:
MUSE Winston-Salem is a history museum for Winston-Salem and Forsyth County located at 226 S. Liberty Street in Winston-Salem, NC. Our mission is to connect, enrich and enlarge the community through history, storytelling and informed, balanced perspective that leads to acceptance, understanding and belonging. For more information, visit www.musews.org.
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Event Venue
226 S. Liberty Street, Winston-Salem, NC, United States, North Carolina 27101, 226 S Liberty St, Winston-Salem, NC 27101-5286, United States, Winston Salem
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