


Founded in 2023 and led by creative director Mel Meagher, UNFOLD PROJECTS collaborates with local artists and artisans to cultivate spaces where creative expression has room to unfold.
This work takes place through the co-design of context-led sites and embedded programming. For each project, known as UNFOLD PROJECTS’ Editions, a curated Guild—a regionally-based collective of artists and designers–– as well as architecture, and construction practitioners, engage in an immersive process of rediscovery with the location.

The answer is not always to start from scratch, but to give care and thought to what something was in the past that never reached its full potential and nurture its capacity to evolve.
Led by Meagher and Stacy Kelley, Director of Art, at UNFOLD PROJECTS, the Guild conceives and produces furniture, hardware, sculpture, and objects, as well as custom architectural and landscape elements informed by regenerative design principles and the property. This intimate and iterative approach results in an Archive, a collection of wholly unique pieces and works, each one deeply attuned to materiality, craft, and the environment.
Thereafter, each Edition serves as host to an artist residency program; a beacon for community-centered stewardship. Here, artists of all disciplines—painters, poets, sculptors, environmentalists, and more—receive time to slow down, reconnect with their practice and the natural world, while communing with local partners for workshops and other opportunities for exchange.
UNFOLD PROJECTS is currently developing its Editions, respectively, in Encinitas (completed) and Idyllwild (in process), California.


Mel Meagher
Founder + Creative Director Co-Director, UNFOLD Residency
Mel Meagher (they/them) is UNFOLD PROJECTS’ Founder and Creative Director, managing each element of the platform, from the restoration and aesthetic direction of its Editions, to its Guild members, the UNFOLD Residency, and its corresponding community events, workshops, and exhibitions. Mel led design and development in the traditional real estate realm for ten years, which sparked a passion for a more holistic way that puts ecology and artistry at the forefront. A poet at heart, Mel is a storyteller and a fervent believer in artists and their abilities to translate the forgotten elements of our built environment. This paradigm shift around how we view—and appreciate—artists is the pulse perpetuating Mel's leadership at UNFOLD.
Mel holds a B.A. in Media Studies from the University of California Berkeley as well as a Masters in Real Estate Development with an emphasis on green building from Portland State University. Mel is certified as a Regenerative Design Practitioner through the Regenesis Group and holds a certificate in Healthier Materials and Sustainable Buildings from the Parsons School of Design. Mel also served on the Board of Directors at the Institute of Contemporary Art San Diego from January 2023 to July 2024.

Stacy Kelley
Director of Art Co-Director, UNFOLD Residency
Stacy Kelley (she/her) is UNFOLD PROJECTS’ Director of Art. Kelley curates and manages site-specific artwork for UNFOLD's Editions and co-directs the UNFOLD Residency and event programming. Kelley draws on over twenty years working closely with international artists and designers to exhibit their work through experiential formats, including commissioned artwork for design projects, public art, and community programming.
Kelley’s experience includes conceptualizing and directing San Diego Design Week for its first two years in collaboration with Mingei International Museum, serving as designer-in-residence at UCSD Design Lab to contribute to strategic planning around design in the San Diego-Tijuana region, developing park-wide sustainability plans and LEED certifications for the museums and grounds of Balboa Park in collaboration with Balboa Park Cultural Partnership, and working as an interior designer at NICOLEHOLLIS. Kelley holds a B.A. in Business Leadership from the University of Puget Sound with directed study in Art and Architectural History in Vienna, Austria, and a certificate in Sustainable Business Practices from University of California, San Diego.
An advisory committee of curators, sustainability experts, and leaders in regenerative design practices.
For each UNFOLD Edition, we curate a Guild of regional artists, designers, and craftspeople whose collective expertise and dialogue is guided by a shared commitment to craft, place, and purpose.
Encinitas guild
Terremoto
LANDSCAPE DESIGN + BIODIVERSITY
go to TerremotoRANA Cohabitat
LANDSCAPE DESIGN + BIODIVERSITY
go to RANA CohabitatNative American Arts Center at Idyllwild Arts
INDIGENOUS ARTS
go to Native American Arts Center at Idyllwild ArtsMARTA
CULTURAL STEWARD
go to MARTAPowerhouse Arts
CULTURAL STEWARD
go to Powerhouse ArtsRegenesis Group
REGENERATIVE DEVELOPMENT
go to Regenesis GroupHabitat Horticulture
LIVING ARCHITECTURE
go to Habitat HorticultureRitual Architecture
MINDFUL DESIGN
go to Ritual ArchitectureHouse of Heacock
MINDFUL DESIGN
go to House of HeacockWhatever Gallery
RESPONSIBLE REPURPOSING
go to Whatever GalleryHobbs Modern
RESPONSIBLE REPURPOSING
go to Hobbs ModernBIOBUILD
REGENERATIVE MATERIALS
go to BIOBUILDEarthhaus
REGENERATIVE MATERIALS
go to EarthhausORCA
REGENERATIVE MATERIALS
go to ORCAAlkemis Paint
REGENERATIVE MATERIALS
go to Alkemis PaintMarjan
CULINARY ART
go to MarjanPADMA
ECOLOGICAL ART
go to PADMAGuava Floral
ECOLOGICAL ART
go to Guava FloralGander
STORYTELLER
go to GanderBIGMESS
STORYTELLER
go to BIGMESS