We steward an exceptional research library to inspire new theory and application. We lead by example in our own region of the Berkshires with innovation in currency issue, community land tenure, local investment, community supported industry, and crowd-sourced business planning. We experiment, make mistakes, adjust, and publish the results – proud to display economic institution-making in process. We engage media with stories of what is possible. We partner with other organizations to expand outreach. We answer questions about replication.

The project underway is to build out the ground floor level, an additional 1,600 square feet, providing a light and humidity controlled environment. By moving a significant part of the existing collection downstairs, it will mean additional room upstairs for educational programs.

MANAS was the highlight of the week for me. I would walk to the mailbox at the foot of the drive and start reading on the way up. It was like having a private clipping service that spanned the ages of great thinkers and activists. The same issue would have bits of Plato, Kropotkin, and Simone Weil, combined with news of Wes Jackson’s work to recreate a perennial agriculture or John Todd’s work at the New Alchemy Institute to employ plants to filter water. MANAS never failed to reorient me to the finest idealism, an idealism that was, after all, at the heart of our work at the Schumacher Center for a New Economics.