Designing the Civic Life We Inherit with Aki Carpenter, Vice President, RAA
This month’s Futurespaces sessions are supported by HYZ Studio.
About this Presentation
We tend to speak about the future as if it’s waiting to be imagined. Most of the time, we’re working within conditions already set, including systems, histories, and narratives. The future is a layering of decisions over time, even as it unfolds by the second.
Cultural spaces can operate as civic infrastructure, guiding how people come together and understand the world around them. Designing with this in mind can create environments that inspire exchange and awareness, and make spaces for people to see themselves as part of a broader continuum. What we design today becomes the inheritance others will live within.
In this session, Aki Carpenter — Vice President and Chief Creative Officer at Ralph Appelbaum Associates RAA, the world's largest practice dedicated to the planning and design of museums and narrative environments— will share how she approaches the design of public spaces for learning, the responsibilities that come with shaping civic memory, and the questions she's carrying into the projects ahead.
Join us this Thursday for the conversation, followed by an intimate Q&A.
RAA Project: National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
RAA Project: International African American Museum
RAA Project: The Lost Shtetl Museum
About Aki
As RAA’s Vice President and Chief Creative Officer, Aki provides vision and oversees creative direction and output, including providing guidance and feedback on projects, and ensuring that the company’s design work aligns with the practice's brand, objectives, and principles. She is a lead voice of planning and design inside and outside the firm, articulating its vision, sharing the work, driving success, and promoting holistic thinking about making public spaces for learning.
RAA is the world’s largest multidisciplinary design studio for museums and narrative environments. Her current work includes leading the exhibition design for the museum at the Obama Presidential Center and her most recently opened project included the creative direction for the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. Many of Aki’s projects address topics of social justice, activism, and community. Aki holds a BFA in Communications Design with highest honors from Pratt Institute.
About our Sponsor
HYZ Studio creates immersive, story-driven experiences for museums and brands. They design interactive environments that turn audiences into participants, focusing on meaningful, memorable engagement.
About Futurespaces
Founded and led by Josh Goldblum (Bluecadet) Futurespaces offers live webinars and in-person tours that provide valuable insights into the creative process of creating contemporary experiences.