Designing Futures Workshop Series

May 2020 - March 2022

Beginning May 2020, Columbia's School of the Arts, Digital Storytelling Lab partnered with the School of Professional Studies pre-College program to transform an in-person summer curriculum into a dynamic virtual event series.

High School students from around the world came together over Zoom in to deconstruct our global climate crisis and workshop creative solutions. Together, students explored tensions between climate action and industrialization. They designed video games, amusement park rides, story maps, and posters on public display in our virtual Museum for the Futures.

The workshop became very popular over the Summer of 2021, attracting over 200 participating student collaborators. Participants created a community climate statement and art piece that was minted to the Tezos blockchain. Student work went on to be featured at SXSWEdu (2021) and NFT Impact in Paris (2022). The program was also featured in Columbia’s Youth in STEM program (2023).