CIVIC IMAGINATION INCUBATOR
On September 15, 2022, the Civic Imagination Project at the University of Southern California launched the Civic Imagination Incubator pilot. The first iteration of this Incubator will have a regional, place-based focus, in partnership with Western Kentucky University's Potter College of Arts & Letters, and the Innovation Campus at WKU. This partnership was facilitated by the Bowling Green, Kentucky, based nonprofit AccelerateKY.
The Civic Imagination Incubator is a largely virtual program that combines worldbuilding, storytelling, and the civic imagination to help creatives (folks) develop impactful story worlds and media projects that engage participatory practices. The term of the incubator for a cohort spans 8 months, during which time 6 selected creatives (folks) move through the collaborative process of ideating, planning, prototyping, devising participatory strategies, and exploring funding possibilities for their projects through monthly meetings and sessions with creative guests and mentors. The process taps civic imagination and worldbuilding methodologies, as well as ‘by any media necessary’ approaches to creating media and support folks on their creative journeys.
The real world is full of challenges, and the sheer weight of problems facing all of us can stifle the genius of our human creativity at exactly the time when we desperately need radical and innovative solutions. Utopias and dystopias have long been used to pose questions, provoke discussions, and inspire next steps, helpful because they break contemporary frames and encourage long-view perspectives. Tapping into examples and models from around the world where shared storyworlds are being deployed in service of social impact, the Incubator helps folks reflect on their work through emerging models of civic imagination and world-building for social impact.
