While many Americans are eager to forget all about 2020, a new Smithsonian initiative is working to collect the memories we made during this chaotic and painful year.
This Friday, December 11, ten Smithsonian museums and cultural institutions will host a day of virtual programming—focusing on the Covid pandemic, racial injustice, and other contemporary issues—while inviting the public to share what their lives have been like in 2020.
“By collecting stories from the public,” the Smithsonian said in a press release, via DCist, “‘24 Hours in a Time of Change’ seeks to bring people together through a national dialogue and help the Smithsonian capture a snapshot of a day in the life of the nation.”
Using this website, participants can submit their recollections and reflections on the year. Some of these responses will appear on the initiative’s website and be archived by Smithsonian curators.
A full schedule of the day’s events can be found here.
Luke Mullins is a senior writer at Washingtonian magazine focusing on the people and institutions that control the city’s levers of power. He has written about the Koch Brothers’ attempt to take over The Cato Institute, David Gregory’s ouster as moderator of NBC’s Meet the Press, the collapse of Washington’s Metro system, and the conflict that split apart the founders of Politico.
