Smithsonian & ASU Exhibit

The Smithsonian will celebrate its 175th anniversary by opening the Historic Arts and Industries building for the first time in two decades. We spoke to Award-winning artist Brian Miller about his artwork and look at his future visions.

The futures exhibit is a new collaboration with ASU Center for Science and imagination and the Smithsonian. It opens November 20, at the Smithsonian arts and industry building, and it runs until next July.  It will feature new technology, artwork and stories that imagine life 50 years in the future.

“ASU Center for Science imagination is already sort of known for all the work they do with corporations and other foundations imagining different future scenarios,” Miller said. “I think it was a natural fit for them to connect with Smithsonian to work on this futures project, so that we could sit down with some museums and imagine what their future might be like in 50 years.”

The future is something that is on all of our minds constantly. The next 5 minutes, the next hour, the next 12 hours, the next day, week and month. Arizonans are constantly imagining the future.

“We like to think that instead of predicting, we’re just trying to open a dialog, open a conversation to allow people to then imagine what the future could be,” Miller said.

One of the first pieces was based on Star Wars, which Miller is a big fan of.

“We like the idea that what if Smithsonian Air and Space Museum Sunday, you can actually go visit an annex in space,” Miller said. “And that brought all kinds of conversation, we can imagine to like, to space travel become accessible to everyone, because you know, the specific museums are free to access.”

Another illustration was the 67th amendment, with children getting the right to vote.

“We knew just because of that nature of that discussion, that will be an engaging illustration for people to see and hopefully open up a dialogue with them,” Miller said. “And there’s this idea that people who are disenfranchised that we talked about, don’t get the right to vote.”