Announcing SPARKS, a New Community Cohort

We’re very excited to announce the creation of a new cohort at the Center for Process Studies (CPS): SPARKS. Virtually everything we do at CPS involves cultivating or collaborating with communities. Inspired by a vision of the world in which all things are interconnected, interdependent, and interbecoming, the notion of community is woven into the fabric of our identity. We are, as John Cobb often said, a community of communities that is drawn together by a common perspective and a shared desire to bring about creative transformations that help build an ecological civilization.

Our Community Cohorts program is a vital and vibrant part of our work in this area, as each one provides a supportive environment for those who want to live out process ways of being by engaging in shared interests and activities that foster fulfillment and joy among its members and nurtures deep relationships between them. Today marks the beginning of a new chapter as we launch SPARKS, an arts collective dedicated to exploring process-relational experience through creativity and the arts, and cultivating a world grounded in compassion, justice, and sustainability.

SPARKS is a vibrant community of artists, cultural contributors, educators, social workers, and seekers who believe in the power of creativity as a vital force for transformation, healing, and planetary care. Through diverse forms of expression—such as poetry, music, theatre, film, dance, sculpture, and more—we create spaces for collaboration and connection.

We believe in art as a form of activism and performance as a way of thinking. We embrace imperfection, openness, and the evolving nature of human experience, using art to inspire empathy, transform despair into beauty, and reimagine a world where all beings can thrive. SPARKS stands for Sustainability, Playful Possibility, Aesthetic Imagination, Relationality, Kindness, and Spirituality. These values shape everything we do and offer a foundation for cultivating compassionate, creative, and soul-nurturing community through the arts.

Our primary aim is to explore process-relational experience through creativity and the arts. We accomplish that by (1) creating a supportive and collaborative space for artistic expression, (2) cultivating a collective of artists who are devoted to the cultivation of just, compassionate, and sustainable communities, and (3) hosting activities, programs, and projects to promote the arts and publicize works that foster the flourishing of local communities and the larger world.

You don’t need to be a professional artist to join—just bring your own spark. Would you like to create with us?