Wisdom Workshop · 2026–2027
A twelve-month, no-residency program to deliver a portfolio that might change your life.
"If you're not busy being born, you're busy dying."Bob Dylan
Next doorway: Fall 2026 — contracts due September 9, workshop begins September 16.
The Invitation
The art, the course, the book, the practice, the venture, the second act. The future of education is yours to create — with a structure, community, and the kind of accountability that feels like friendship.
The Personal Master of Arts (perMA) is a twelve-month journey to complete a life-changing project of real worth — comparable in depth to a low-residency MFA, at a fraction of the cost, built around your commitments rather than a campus. No relocation, no debt. A contract with yourself, the company of others.
At a Glance
Four seasonal seven-week workshops, a weekly practice rhythm, monthly one-on-one conferences, and a culminating whole-person project you design, build, and share.
Begin at any of three seasonal doorways. Your entry workshop is your door; the perMA community is your home for the year.
Real-time small groups of nine or fewer on Zoom, with a vibrant community of 115+ alumni across nine countries.
Or $412.50/month for twelve months. Needs-based scholarships, a two-week free-drop period, and our "Show Your Work" guarantee.
The Spine
Everything in the perMA rests on one methodological commitment: third-generation coaching — symmetric, co-reflective dialogue in which the facilitator is also learning. First-generation coaching tells you what to do. Second-generation coaching asks questions from behind a professional mask. Third-generation coaching sits down at the table with you: collaborative meaning-making between whole persons, where wisdom emerges between us rather than being transmitted at us.
Our workshops are not lecture courses with discussion sections. They are crucibles — small circles where narrative emerges from mutual acceptance rather than individual performance. We train the acceptance reflex before we do the intellectual work.
Sessions across the year are led and co-led by fellows and community facilitators. Leadership here is synarchy, not hierarchy — the river and the banks.
Each week the community reviews together: what moved, what stalled, what we need from each other. This shared rhythm keeps twelve months of self-directed work from dissolving into the scheduling entropy of adult life.
Loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity are woven into how feedback is given, how celebrations are marked, and how the community holds each member's project as if it were partly its own.
How the Year Works
Admission runs through a single page: a contract naming the project you intend to complete, the daily practice that will carry it, and the people you want beside you. It is your application, your accountability object, and — as one of our fellows puts it — a sacred contract between yourself and your source.
Each season opens with a week to connect, share intentions, and — for continuing fellows — prototype new sessions inside the community.
Seven weeks each, weekly on Zoom, described below.
Daily contracted practice (most fellows target five of seven days, logged simply and honestly) plus the Collective Weekly Review.
A one-on-one conference each month — part coaching conversation, part milestone review, in the third-generation form.
The year concludes not with a thesis defense but with a whole-person project shared with the community and, where you choose, the world. The measure is not perfection but worth: does the finished work recruit all the muscles of your life?
| Months | Phase | Milestones |
|---|---|---|
| 1–3 | Kindle | Contract witnessed · entry workshop · daily practice established |
| 4–6 | Ground | First prototype exists · mid-year contract revision |
| 7–9 | Connect & Deepen | Feedback cycles · optional co-facilitation |
| 10–12 | Grow | Culmination completed · public sharing · commencement conversation |
Fellows track all five degree requirements against these phases in the interactive check sheet — practice logs, review attendance, check-ins, and milestones, in your browser.
The Coursework
Summer · July 8 – August 19, 2026 · Wednesdays 10am & 6pm MTCompleted
What is our version of a good life, and how can writing help us actualize it? Built on the 7 Ps of practical wisdom — Presence, Purpose, Play, Projects, People, Process, Perspective — with an improv-wisdom reading spine. Writing here means self-authorship in every mode: writing, dancing, breathing, arting.
TextsDesigning Your Life · Writing Down the Bones · The Artist's Way
Fall · September 15/16 – October 27/28, 2026 · Three groupsApplications open ↗
What is a personal philosophy, and how do we write one? Aristotle, the Stoics and Epicureans; Confucius, the Buddha, the Tao; then progressive Islam, existentialism and pragmatism, and the Potawatomi — to help you write your personal philosophy in 500 words or fewer.
TextHow to Live a Good Life (Pigliucci, Cleary & Kaufman)
Read the full syllabus — From KinderGarten to WandelGarten ↗ · syllabus document ↗
Winter · January 20 – March 3, 2027 · Wednesdays 6–7:30pm MT
We read the science of creativity and experiment with how creative play actualizes flourishing. How do we enable ourselves to do the best work we've ever done — and cultivate feedback-rich environments with people we trust? What can the philosophy of gift-giving teach us about a happier studio?
TextsWired to Create · The Creative Habit or Keep Going
Spring · April 14 – May 26, 2027 · Wednesdays 6–7:30pm MT
Anchored in Seligman's PERMA and mapped to the Wuxing five-element cycle of our O-PERMA Creative Culture Labs: what does the evidence say about flourishing, and how do we test it in our own lives? The natural final season — doubling as culmination-project studio time.
"All the arts we practice are apprenticeships. The big art is our life." M.C. Richards
Individual workshop enrollment (outside the perMA) available at $695 per workshop.
Voices
"The Wisdom Workshop finds you exactly when you need it… It gives you the tools to ask the right questions and the community to be held accountable."Haley
"I feel like I can learn anything in an environment like this… I've done more writing and more art in the last seven weeks than I've done in my entire life."Danielle
"This is the most special, unique and memorable learning atmosphere I've ever participated in — in work or school or anywhere."Chance
"I am refreshed and inspired to know that school and micro-workshops aren't just for people under 22 years old."Kendra
Enrollment
You can take a single seven-week workshop, or give the year to a culmination project. They're separate offers with separate application processes, so start with the one you actually want.
One workshop
Seven weeks, standalone — and also the Fall doorway into the perMA, if you decide to continue.
The full year
Twelve months, four seasonal workshops, and a culmination project you design, build, and share.
perMA admission is by application and interview. Enrollment begins with the signing of your co-creative contract, witnessed at your zero week. Spring is culmination season — the studio months — not an entry point.
| Entry season | Workshop begins | Contracts due | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Summer 2026 | July 8 | July 1 | Completed |
| Fall 2026 | September 16 | September 9 | Next doorway |
| Winter 2027 | January 20 | January 13 | Open |
To enroll: begin the application, meet for your admission conversation, write your co-creative contract with our one-page template, and join your zero week.
1:1 Personal Master of Arts
$4,950
one-time, or $412.50/month for twelve months.
Needs-based scholarships available. Includes a personalized approach to a year-long culmination project: weekly process reflections, monthly 1:1 personalized tutorials, quarterly deadlines and lifelines to give birth to your life-changing project.
For fellows who want to facilitate and coach professionally, the perMA connects to the Emergent Learning Facilitator-Coach (ELF-C) certification pathway — a separate supervised program. Your perMA coursework and coaching-lab hours count toward its requirements, and toward ICF designation. Ask about the certification track at your enrollment conversation.
Recipients of scholarships are notified one week before any course begins. Every workshop carries a two-week free-drop period (less $49 admin fee) and our "Show Your Work" satisfaction guarantee.
"The real journey of discovery consists not in going to new places, but in having new eyes."Marcel Proust
Why: to help you live your good life, so that you can do good in the world.
Founded in 2020 by Sean Waters (MA, Philosophy & Comparative Religion; MA, Education), the Wisdom Workshop has never been a one-teacher school. In a third-generation learning community, everyone at the table is both student and teacher — including the founder.
sean@wisdomworkshop.io · Admission by application and interview