On March 9, 2018, the library of the iconic 19th century Smithsonian Castle reverberated with the sights and sounds of the latest virtual reality technology as seventy members of the Smithsonian Women’s Committee screened Honoring the Future’s new film, Let’s Explore.
Let’s Explore virtually transported Smithsonian Women’s Committee members from the library’s confines to the far corners of the globe to witness scientists gather evidence of climate change. Following the screening, videographer Steve Johnson assessed virtual reality’s storytelling power. “Virtual reality builds trust with audiences, allows them to self-discover information, and gives them a stronger motivation to act on that information,” he observed.
Fran Dubrowski, Director of Honoring the Future, thanked Smithsonian Women’s Committee President Cissel Gott Collins and Program Coordinator Heidi Austreng for arranging the screening. “This presentation offered a wonderful opportunity to review – and deepen—our now 4-year old partnership with the Smithsonian Women’s Committee,” Dubrowski noted.
The Smithsonian Women’s Committee was founded in 1966 to help the Smithsonian increase and diffuse knowledge. Since then, the all-volunteer group has raised over $12 million, primarily through two annual signature events – the Smithsonian Craft Show and the Craft2 Wear show. These funds support grants for innovative education, research, and conservation projects in the Smithsonian’s 19 museums and galleries, 9 research facilities and the National Zoo.
The Smithsonian Women’s Committee also supports the Smithsonian’s efforts to address identified “grand challenges,” including “understanding and sustaining a biodiverse planet.” Since 2015, the Smithsonian Women’s Committee has partnered with Honoring the Future to offer an annual Sustainability Award to the Smithsonian Craft Show artist whose work best “educates the public about climate change or inspires or models a sustainable response to climate change.” The two partners also collaborate to highlight sustainably-made clothing featured at the annual Craft2Wear show.
“Screening Let’s Explore offered a chance for the Smithsonian Women’s Committee, as grantmakers, to weigh the potential of virtual reality to increase public access to, and confidence in, science, including climate science,” said Dubrowski. “We commend the Smithsonian Women’s Committee for its continued exploration of how it can best support the Smithsonian in ‘understanding and sustaining a biodiverse planet’.”