Youth and the Future of Culture is produced by the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.
Program Staff
Lead Curator: Michelle Banks
Curators: Amalia Córdova, Cristina Díaz-Carrera, Rebecca Fenton, Marjorie Hunt, Sojin Kim, Mary Linn
Guest Co-Curator: Halena Kapuni-Reynolds, National Museum of the American Indian
Senior Program Coordinator: Arlene Reiniger
Program Coordinators: Alexia Fawcett, Pablo Molinero-Martinez
Curatorial Assistants: Eloy Neira de la Cadena, Andrea Mayorga
Program Assistants: Ali Ali, Conner Barron, Sophia Fedus, Connor Roop
Interns: Krystin Anderson, Daniel Atuma, Liv Berg, Zoe Cymrot, Amare Davis, Lydia Desormeaux, William Diaz-Contreras, Brianna Fernandez, Jeffrey Gerald, Lila Hancock, Peyton Hoffman, Morgan Joiner, Mary Bridget Jones, Olivia Jones, Renatka Kozlowska, Sofia Little, Rachel Lyndon, Zavier Northrup, Shannon Perry, Melia Person, Anh Thu Pham-Vu, Angelina Rios-Galindo, Alix Roederer-Morin, Khaki Sawyer, Ruth Schmidt, Sofia Wallace, London Wright
Festival Director: Sabrina Lynn Motley
Lead Volunteers: Sraavya Chintalapati, Alix Davidson, Andrea Delgado, Mirian Fuentes Romero, Anna Goodman, Carlos Izurieta, Mimi Kim, Jill Vanderweit, Patrick Weigand
Presenters: Julia Aguilar Jerez, Betto Arcos, Diana Baird N’Diaye, Chloe Barnett, Rachel Cooper, Eric Curry, Angélica de Jesús, James Deutsch, Stephen Hartley, Steven Hatcher, Kristy Li Puma, Tim McCoy, Evangeline Mee, Magdalena Mieri, Jazmín Morales, Katrina Orsini, Rachel Ornelas, Mia Owens, Jimmy Pelletier, Cassandra Quayson, Cita Sadeli, Lauryn Salazar, Denise Sandoval, Kiran Singh Sirah, Jasmine Smith, Jessica Smith, Lucy Thomason, George Thuronyi, Steve Velasquez
Sponsors
The Festival received federal support from the Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the National Museum of the American Latino, and the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative Pool, administered by the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum. General program support for the 2025 Festival is provided, in part, by Casey Family Programs.
Support for Next Generation Artisans in the Traditional Building Trades comes from the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, 1772 Foundation, Richard Hampton Jenrette Foundation, Smithsonian Women’s Committee, and University of Notre Dame School of Architecture. In-kind support comes from the National Park Service Historic Preservation Training Center.
Funding for lacrosse activities in Native Language Reclamation in the U.S. comes from DeMaurice Smith. Curatorial support for Hawaiian programming provided by the National Museum of the American Indian.
Curatorial support for lowrider programming in Streetwise is provided by the National Museum of American History.
