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Dear Future




Dear Future


Client: Spence Chapin

Producer: Pendulum
Graphic Design: Bodasher Studio
Video Editor: Leandro Tolchinsky
Costume Designers: Felipe Ginebra, Isabella Angulo
Fabricator: Rylan Bailey
Videographers: Juan Velasquez, Mariana Medina
Translator: Laura Sotelo
Workshop facilitator: Laura Sotelo

Role: Exhibit Designer &
Graphic Design   
                                          
Team: Lindsey Wikstrom
 
Dear Future is more than an art exhibition. It is a movement that wishes to give children who are living difficult realities the space to dream. And it starts here, with the dreams of 10 children from Chiquitines Children’s Home in Cali, Colombia, together with their Granny caregivers.

For this mobile fund raising exhibition, the team worked with local artists in Colombia to engage children in the crafting of their unique masks and costumes. They also helped the children write letters to their future selves and dream about where they might end up in the world.

The exhibition features their work and photographs by renowned photographer. As a fund raising effort, the key to the design was to create mobile displays that were easy to construct and deconstruct, simple in their aesthetic, and cost effective so that the majority of the funds would go towards the orphange. We also worked with unique vendors who made donations of time and materials for the cause.








Index


Location: New York City

Client: Spence Chapin

Producer: Pendulum
Graphic Design: Bodasher Studio
Video Editor: Leandro Tolchinsky
Costume Designers: Felipe Ginebra, Isabella Angulo
Fabricator: Rylan Bailey
Videographers: Juan Velasquez, Mariana Medina
Translator: Laura Sotelo
Workshop facilitator: Laura Sotelo

Role: Exhibit Designer &
Graphic Design   
                                          
Team: Lindsey Wikstrom

Dear Future is more than an art exhibition. It is a movement that wishes to give children who are living difficult realities the space to dream. And it starts here, with the dreams of 10 children from Chiquitines Children’s Home in Cali, Colombia, together with their Granny caregivers.

For the millions of children living in orphanages worldwide, life is often devoid of individuality and personhood. Harsh realities of abandonment, abuse, and neglect result in perpetual and unimaginable trauma.
Even basic needs like consistent care and nurturing human interaction are luxuries. Without them, children face lifelong challenges–developmental delays, attachment insecurity, and dimmed hopes for the future.

The act of envisioning oneself in another reality is not just imagination‘s indulgence, but a fundamental human experience that helps shape our identities and potential.

Children build confidence and strong identities when they are given the space to dream, and encouragement from adults that their dreams are valid and worthy of being explored. To be denied that creative expression and space is to be stripped of a vital part of one‘s humanity. 
Dear Future is a defiance against that deprivation. This mixed-media exhibition allows the unbridled dreams of institutionalized children in Cali, Colombia to transcend their circumstances through a powerful alchemy of creativity and the presence of their “Granny” caregivers, who are part of the Granny Program - a global initiative to support children living in institutionalized care through consistent, one-on-one care and attention from a loving adult. Together, these children and their Grannies are guided through an extraordinary co-creative process with artists and designers, where their visions are transmuted into physical form.

As you wander amid the exhibit space, you‘ll witness these children‘s innermost hopes springing to life. Regal, hand-crafted costumes adorned with Colombian folkloric patterns become avatars for their imagined future selves.

Ancestral Colombian techniques are combined with modern artistry, weaving a rich tapestry that celebrates heritage while elevating singular voices, too often silenced.

Dear Future gives vibrant expression to the hopes and resilience of the most vulnerable children. Though their circumstances may seem bleak, rays of light shine on the potential that blossoms when we truly see and nurture the dreams of every child. By supporting initiatives like these, we can all help build a more just, empathetic world where every dream is given the chance to take flight. The transformation begins here.

Dear Future was brought to life by Spence-Chapin Services to Families and Children, a renowned organization dedicated to supporting children and families, and founder of The Granny Program. For over 115 years, Spence-Chapin has advocated for the welfare of children, helped to strengthen families, and consistently provided support and resources to anyone connected to adoption. They continue to grow and expand their programs and services to best serve all families and their communities, those connected to adoption, and vulnerable children worldwide.