Civic Imagination In Action | Made By Us x Smithsonian
Institution: Made By Us (Smithsonian-affiliated civic initiative)
Role: Civic Season Program Assistant
Location: Remote
Dates: May 2025 – July 2025
Status: Completed
Quick Project Overview
Made By Us brings together museums, civic organizations, and cultural institutions to spark intergenerational participation in democracy. As a Program Assistant for Civic Season—a Gen-Z-centered movement between Juneteenth and July 4—I supported national programming designed to help young people explore identity, memory, and civic imagination through culture and history.
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Civic Season is a growing movement inviting young people to connect the past to their power in the present and future. Co-created with Gen-Z, the initiative blends civic education, culture, and creative experimentation—inviting young people to re-imagine how democracy grows.
During my contract, Made By Us launched activation sites, digital storytelling campaigns, and community-participation experiences across the country, spotlighting reflections on belonging, civic identity, and intergenerational futures.
Learn more: https://historymadebyus.org/wish-walls
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Made By Us core team (including Caroline Klibanoff)
Smithsonian collaborators (Adam Rozan)
National museum + cultural network partners
Youth advisory and Gen-Z creative contributors
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Supported Civic Season programming, including the national 10,000-postcard time capsule to be archived by the Smithsonian
Edited 15+ digital storytelling and content assets to support national activation partners
Gathered branded content and reporting materials for national communication efforts
Supported interactive community-building experiences across physical civic spaces and digital networks
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Smithsonian-archived time-capsule postcard project
Civic storytelling assets and youth-centered content
Digital brand clips and program engagement report
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Canva, CapCut, & Google Workspace for content creation + delivery
Social media + civic engagement frameworks
Youth-centered storytelling + participatory design
From the Wish Wall at Smithsonian Activation in June/July 2025.
Impact & Learning
This experience reinforced that civic life is not simply something we inherit — it is something we actively imagine and build together. Working alongside young people as they shaped history in real time affirmed a core belief in my practice: the future is a collective narrative, and imagination is public infrastructure. Civic engagement becomes transformative when it is rooted in belonging, creativity, and shared authorship — not duty or performance.
This project strengthened my commitment to designing civic experiences that center futures thinking, cultural imagination, and relational agency. It affirmed a core pillar of Conscious Futures: that democracy grows when we create spaces where people can see themselves in the future, and can participate not only in solving problems — but in dreaming, designing, and embodying what comes next.
