SAMFA Series Asks Citizens to Design the Future

The future is a combination of what the world does (to us) and what we do (to it). Most people place great emphasis on what the world does.

We read and see powerful trends and powerful people and institutions shape the future in the news every day. But do we have any influence over the future? Many would say no.

We work to live, to survive, rarely to influence the future. We encourage our children to take a hold of their future, but how many of us do it ourselves? 

The San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts is working to correct that. Through its Visions and Choices series, the citizens of San Angelo are offered the chance to define and present their own concepts for the future of their community.

Can they do so?Isn’t planning, much less design, a technical skill available only to the few professionals who do that for a living?

Yes, there is a technical skill to planning and design, but there is also a native human ability to envision a preferred future and share that vision with others.

Young children have no trouble doing it, sometimes with great imagination and emphasis, but our institutions, including our schools, have discouraged us from tapping into that ability as adults.

True, we may not be planners or engineers, but we are citizens who should have a say in how our communities develop. The SAMFA Visions and Choices program is one opportunity to rekindle the fire of our inner designer. 

Dr. Peter Bishop will share his insights into the role that design plays in shaping the future, along with the current trends and future possibilities that designers can use to shape the future.

Just as designers of the past used steam, electricity, petroleum and other technologies and energy sources to build a better world, so we have new technologies and opportunities for shaping our future today.

The public is invited to hear Dr. Bishop’s lecture, “Designing the Future,” Thursday, October 10, at 5:30 pm in SAMFA’s Meeting Room.

The audience is encouraged to ask questions and light refreshments will be served. The program, hosted by the SAMFA Collectors Society and sponsored in part by a grant from the FMH Foundation, is free of charge.