Archives of the Future

What will the year 2050 be like? This is the question that is at the center of this project made in collaboration with myself, artist Arista Alanis, and the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th grade classes of Johnson Elementary School in Vermont in the Spring of 2021. While this project was proposed before the Covid-19 pandemic had manifested in 2020, it turned out to be a powerful way to imagine, speculate and dream about what life would be like far on the other side of a strange and challenging time period in our history.

This project is a time capsule. It's a an archive. It contains ideas about what the future will hold for us from the vivid imaginations of young people. A time capsule of everything on this site will reside in the library at Johnson Elementary School as an exhibition that can be shared with visitors for years to come.

This project was made through a Teaching Fellowship with Vermont Studio Center, and would not have been possible without the help of Arista Alanis, School Arts Coordinator at Vermont Studio Center/Johnson Elementary School Art Teacher. I want to thank Vermont Studio Center for this opportunity.

-Jaimes Mayhew, Baltimore, 2021