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Celebrating its 175th anniversary, the Smithsonian launches FUTURES festival and exhibition in historic building

Past meets future in this Rockwell-designed exhibition, which features 150 installations and artworks, including a guest appearance from Marvel Studios

FUTURES fuses art, technology, design and history to help visitors imagine many possible futures on the horizon

This weekend marked the opening of the Smithsonian’s FUTURES exhibition, which is hosted by the historic Arts and Industries Building (AIB) on the National Mall, Washington, D.C. The exhibition coincides with the Smithsonian’s 175th anniversary.

The FUTURES exhibition, which opened on Saturday and will run until July 2022, was designed by acclaimed architect David Rockwell and his Rockwell Group, and marks the Smithsonian’s first “major exploration of the future”.

More than 150 installations and exhibits cross the boundaries of art, science, technology, design and history in a unique exhibition with a festival vibe. The festival side of proceedings kicked off with live streams, citywide pop-up installations, famous guests, virtual roundtable discussions and a concert.

“FUTURES is designed to help us push beyond what we think we may know,” said Rachel Goslins, director of AIB. “The ability to imagine new worlds in a way that feels emotional and real is a powerful tool to bring new visions to life.”

The connection to history is also tangible, as the AIB, dubbed “Mother of Museums”, opened its doors to the public after a closure spanning the past two decades. The building dates back to 1881 and was home to the US’s first National Museum. The Smithsonian plans to continue renovating the site and permanently open it to the public.

Surely one of the most popular segments of the FUTURES exhibition will prove to be the Marvel Studios’ Eternals display. Focusing on cutting-edge standards in the building of story worlds, the exhibit features five costumes from the movie and shows visitors how the latest technology is being used in the world of blockbuster cinema.

“Eternals takes some radical approaches to filmmaking by playing with scale and visual effects in ways never seen before in the MCU [Marvel Cinematic Universe], time travelling through humanity’s earliest civilizations to beyond the cosmos,” said Ashley Molese, curator at AIB.

The Marvel-themed installation is accompanied by a wealth of other comic and science-fiction inspired artwork.

One exhibit, ‘Hi, How R U?’ by the Circus Family collective, is a “holo-capsule portal” at which visitors can create a holo-recording message for future generations, or, from December, converse holographically with people at a portal site in Doha, Qatar.

“With the holo-capsule in ‘FUTURES,’ we’re celebrating the power of human connection,” said Molese. “One of the greatest wonders of our lives today is our ability to instantly meet each other across space and time. As we make decisions about the future, we’re able to offer visitors a poignant and delightful case that we should place the greatest value on one another.

CREDIT: Marvel Studios