Local Coalition Announces Future of Us -- Inaugural Civic Imagination Festival Launching July 4, 2026 in San Francisco

San Francisco-Based Initiative Marks America's 250th Birthday with a 10-Day Celebration of Community-Sourced Visions for the Future

SAN FRANCISCO, May 6, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Future of Us today announced its inaugural festival, a 10-day citywide event running July 4–12, 2026, across San Francisco, timed to the nation's 250th anniversary. The festival will feature a signature showcase at The Pearl in Dogpatch, partner-led programming from 20+ collaborating organizations including SFMOMA, the American Indian Cultural District, and the San Francisco Environment Department, and 50+ events designed and led by 3O+ Future Culture Fellows — grassroots civic visionaries drawn from neighborhoods across the city's Supervisorial and Cultural Districts.

The festival is the centerpiece of Future of Us, a three-part civic initiative comprising The Visions, a year-long nationwide listening and speculative storytelling tour that has gathered more than 1,000 community reflections to date; The Festival, the July 4–12 citywide celebration; and The Collective, an emerging coalition of Bay Area civic builders and creatives. The initiative uses storytelling and interactive design to spark civic imagination and make civic life more vibrant, inspiring, and approachable.

"From the Summer of Love to Pride to Beat culture to Burning Man to all of the artists and innovators in between, San Francisco has a legacy of bold civic reimagining," said Stephanie Fine Sasse, Co-creator of Future of Us and Founder of The Plenary, Co. "As we near the nation's milestone 250th anniversary, the technological and economic forces rooted here could have an outsized impact on everyone's future. The Future of Us initiative is experimenting with what civic culture could look like if we balanced corporate innovation with collective imagination, integrated art and science in civic life, and made a lot more space for a lot more people to co-imagine the futures they actually want."

Festival programming is organized around four core themes — Green Futures, Social Futures, Science & Tech Futures, and Media Futures — and unfolds across four types of programming:

• Signature programming, anchored by a 10-day showcase at The Pearl in Dogpatch (July 4–12), produced by The Plenary, Co. and Nothin But Hits, featuring art exhibitions translating community visions into immersive form, daily programming, and musical performances. There will also be a citywide scavenger hunt exploring local ecosystems and biodiversity, created with Emerging Creatives of Science (ECOS) and an event at Pier 70.
• Fellow-led activations: 50+ events featuring nearly 30 types of activations, designed and led by the inaugural cohort of Future Culture Fellows. Highlights include a pop-up floral labyrinth for civic contemplation, a speculative civic assembly on natural disaster readiness, food storytelling dinners, and themed dance parties. Venue partners include The Faight, Gray Area, and others.
• Partner programming from 20+ collaborating organizations, including a Regenerative Hub led by Bay Area candlemaker Casita Michi, family-friendly activations hosted by Art of San Francisco (presented by Drawbridge) at One Embarcadero, mixers and hack-a-thons hosted by YesSF, and additional programming in partnership with Institute for the Future, SFMOMA and the American Indian Cultural District.
• Neighborhood Pop-Ups, including civic conversation kits distributed by coalition partner Good Neighbor Lab to neighborhood third spaces and neighborhood hubs citywide, supporting decentralized, hyperlocal engagement.

A separate Festival Highlights fact sheet accompanies this release with additional programming details. The full program will be released in the coming weeks.

Through partnerships with action-oriented organizations, including the SF Environment Department and CivicMakers, the festival also connects participants to real-world opportunities to co-build collectively imagined futures.

The Future Culture Fellowship — also announced today — is the inaugural cohort of the Future Culture Collective. The 30+ Fellows are supported through a year-long program of workshops, training, and networking, and will continue programming beyond the July festival.

The Future of Us Creators team includes Alisa Ahmadian (Strategy Lead), B Patt (Media & Entertainment Production Lead, Founder of Nothin But Hits), Jasmine Hiroko McAdams (Research Lead, UC Berkeley), Louise Wo (Community Lead, Founder of Gemlike), and Stephanie Fine Sasse (Vision & Experience Design Lead, Founder of The Plenary, Co.).

Future of Us is supported in part by the Svane Family Foundation, with exhibitions presented by Global Philanthropy Forum. An extended list of partners and advisors is available in the accompanying media kit.

The public and organizations interested in engaging as partners, sponsors, participants, or community visionaries can learn more at www.future-of-us.com or contact [email protected].

About The Plenary, Co.
The Plenary, Co. is a San Francisco–based, nonpartisan civic arts and sciences nonprofit building the cultural conditions for more informed, imaginative, and connected civic life. Through immersive public experiences, storytelling, exhibitions, and collaborative programs, the organization creates spaces where people can engage with the social, scientific, technological, and environmental issues shaping our shared futures. As the managing steward of Future of Us, The Plenary, Co. works across sectors to convene coalitions that open new possibilities for imaginative and coordinated civic infrastructure.

The Plenary, Co. is opening its first hub for civic culture and imagination this fall at Building 12 in Dogpatch's emerging Pier 70 neighborhood.

MEDIA CONTACT: Julie Richter | 480-818-8022 | [email protected]

SOURCE Future of Us