A stray shaft of sunlight broke through the clouds and illuminated the RCA building with a golden light. That was the moment when the vision was given to me that birthed Commonweal—a vision of a center for healing ourselves and healing the earth."
Michael Lerner
President and Co-Founder, Commonweal
The Bolinas site was built in 1914 as a transmitting station by the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company, enabling wireless communications around the world for the first time. In 1976, Commonweal negotiated a 50-year lease on 60 acres just as the site became the southern end of the Point Reyes National Seashore. Marconi's mission to serve as a world-wide transmitter is echoed in our work today.
Our new archive project is preserving the writings and history of Commonweal as well as the work of Co-Founder Michael Lerner.
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The land where Commonweal sits was, for thousands of years, the home of the Coast Miwok people. May our words and visions join with those who came before us and be medicine for the brokenness of time, place, and peoplehood.
Commonweal's rugged, coastal land is steeped in decades of holding space for living and dying, creating, and connecting
Healing Circles Global serves participants from more than 30 countries, with more than 100,000 service hours so far.
➞The Main Building houses Commonweal operations, our Library, Gallery Commonweal, and the Michael Lerner Archives.
Gallery Commonweal is a 1,500-square-foot gallery with 30-foot ceilings, large north- and south-facing windows, and unique historic detail. For 25 years, we've featured arts that heal our bodies, minds, and souls.
Behind the Main Building, artist Zachary Royer Sholz offers an artistic contemplation in the vacant, roofless “rooms” of the abandoned carriage house.
Stemming from a Jungian technique and used here with groups for decades, Sandtray is a powerful therapeutic technique that facilitates the psyche’s natural capacity for healing.
Current exhibit in our gallery
Commonweal Garden was founded in 1978 and developed as a permaculture teaching garden for decades. Today, is it the site of Natura Institute for Ecology and Medicine.
As our network expands across the globe from our humble beginnings, we hold three questions with us:
