Let’s Build Creative Futures: Fall Newsletter 2025

Who are we?

We’re Stacey Garcia, Braden Paynter and Linda Norris. We joined together to form Creative Futures. We believe real growth happens where challenges, relationships, and new possibilities come together—and that no one should have to figure things out alone. With years of experience and a deep love for people, places, and stories, we help create shared futures built on values, vision, and real impact.

When we work with folks on capacity-building, we ask some questions at the start to give us a chance to get to know you. So we thought we should share one of these, and our own answers, to give you all a chance to get to know us.

What food reminds you of home?

“Cranberry sherbet. In my family, for decades, it’s only been served twice a year–at Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. Unusually, it is served at the start of the meal, which, as a kid, was the best. Ice cream before dinner!”- Linda

“Blueberry jam. My grandmother would make some from bushes at her house. Now we make it from wild berries we find locally!” - Braden

“My mom made my Abuela’s Cuban black beans & rice recipe multiple times a week when I was a kid. Now it’s my go-to comfort meal.”- Stacey

Join our next free workshop!

Building Bold Futures Over & Under the Radar

DATE: Wednesday, January 14, 2026
TIME: 12pm - 1:30pm Eastern
COST: Free or pay what you can, all proceeds will be donated to World Central Kitchen

Facing increased repression and censorship, cultural workers are at a crossroads. How do we not just resist, but proactively build the world we envision? When we self-censor or succumb to restrictions, what is the true cost to our values and communities? This isn't about defensive reactions; it's about reclaiming our power to act boldly, strategically, and creatively from our core values.

We believe a more just world is not just possible, but imperative. This participatory virtual workshop is an invitation for cultural workers to build solidarity and shared knowledge. Together, we'll explore historical and global examples of "over and under the radar" cultural strategies. We'll learn from each other, share experiences, and collectively brainstorm innovative approaches to build a brave, creative, and just future.

We hope you will leave with:

New people to build with.
Inspiring examples of cultural institutions enacting change despite repression.
New ideas and strategies for values-driven work.

This is a virtual workshop and will not be recorded.

REGISTER HERE!

What’s sparked our interest?

What Does It Mean to Exhibit the Gun That Killed Emmett Till?

This is an incredibly powerful reflection on a museum’s purchase of the gun that killed Emmett Till by La Tanya S. Autry. She raises questions such as:

What does that gun mean?
What does it mean for a person to possess it? For an institution to possess it?
Does its inclusion in the museum shape how we understand what happened? If so, how? If not, why not?
How does exhibition practice relate to anti-Blackness? To social justice?
How does the gun shape our attention? Does it encourage us to concentrate on the violence of the lynching? On the murderers? On how the ideology of white supremacy is destructive? Does it distract our attention away from the murderers? Away from the destructiveness of the ideology of white supremacy?

A useful companion piece is the 2020 Should Ford’s Display a Murder Weapon? by David McKenzie on the Ford’s Theater blog and another Ford’s Theater post featuring visitor responses to that question.

Solidarity as Strategy:
Building Power Across Movements

In this Solidarity is This podcast, Adaku Utah interviews Nikko Viquiera of Race Forward in navigating attacks on DEI, organizational strategy, and fostering collective action. We’ll be focusing on some of these issues in our upcoming workshop.

What are we up to?

This fall has taken us coast to coast working with organizations on interpretation, from creating new theories of change to ways to address difficult topics raised by the prolific writings of a 19th century literary icon.

Linda and Braden spent two days in September with the team at the Mark Twain House in Hartford, CT to build the team’s ability to engage the public on topics that stress staff or the public. In a pre-gathering survey, the staff identified a wide range of potentially challenging conversations from Twain’s views on race and how it impacts us today, to the family’s varied views on religion and sexuality. We worked on developing dialogic conversations, but equally important, began to address the need for a strong institutional voice on these issues, so that frontline staff feel supported in their work.

Stacey and Linda worked with the team at Angel Island Immigration Station in San Francisco–actually two teams who work as one: the California State Parks team and the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation team. Our focus was on developing an interpretive theory of change, building skills and experiences in dialogic interpretation, and in this critical time, exploring how to connect the history of this site to our current moment. Extra bonus: getting to spend the night on this island in the middle of San Francisco Bay.

We’ve also had the opportunity to connect with students this fall. Stacey and Linda worked with Sean Kelley’s Social Justice and Museums class at San Francisco State University; Linda met virtually with Catherine Gilbert and Philippa Page’s class Memory and Storytelling Across Borders at Newcastle University in the UK, exploring effective questioning and learning about museums around the globe that explore memory and borders of all types. Linda, along with Erin Richardson of Frank & Glory, shared her perspectives on navigating independent museum work with Museum Studies students at Syracuse University.

Interested in working with us? Get in Touch!

Try It!

We’re huge believers in active learning. Experimentation and prototyping are critical parts of our work and we want to encourage you to do the same. Our free, open access workbook, Braver Together: Strengthening Civil and Human Rights provides suggestions for ways you can build bravery at your cultural organization.

Here’s an activity to try!
Find a colleague and have a conversation about ways to build bravery. Here are a few questions to get started:

What are we most afraid of and what would it take to be less afraid?
What does it look like and feel like when we are brave as an organization?
What actions would demonstrate our values?

Find more questions and more ideas in the workbook.