Care — often unseen and undervalued — is the social infrastructure that sustains life.

The VISIBILIZE-ing Care Festival brings together The New School community—students, faculty, alumni, and staff—for a shared creative and critical inquiry into the role of care in contemporary society. Organized by the Parsons CareLab, the festival is an interdisciplinary symposium and exhibition that places scholarship, design practice, and artistic expression in conversation.

Across global and national contexts, we face interconnected crises: public health and climate emergencies, deepening socio‑economic and political polarization, widespread human rights violations, and wars that have caused profound loss and displacement. Running through these crises is a common thread: the systematic de‑prioritization of care—the erosion of what sustains life.

At this moment, we return to a fundamental question: What does care mean—and what does it require of us?

Care encompasses the individual and collective practices that sustain the well‑being of people, communities, and ecosystems. It shapes how we relate to one another, how institutions function, how policies are formed, how cities are built, and how economic and social systems are designed.

A caring society measures progress not by extraction or accumulation, but by the well‑being of its people, its communities, and its environments. It values equity. It cultivates connection. It creates the conditions for all to thrive, to be recognized, and to realize their potential.

This is a complex and consequential moment for The New School, for the United States, and for the world. The festival invites us to gather, reflect, and take a stand—to commit, through our scholarship and teaching, our creative and professional practices, and the many communities we inhabit, to the ongoing work of (re)building a caring society.

The Festival Team:

Michele Kahane (Festival Director, Faculty, School of Design Strategies and Co-Director, Parsons CareLab); Laura Nova (Exhibition Curator, Faculty, School of Design Strategies & Artist in Residence, Parsons CareLab); Kyra Abbisey‑Bonsu (Web Content and Application Manager, MFA Creative Writing); Paola Machuca Hernandez (Graphic Designer, MS Strategic Design and Management); Monisha Raju (Program Designer, MS Strategic Design and Management); Cagla Ekinci (Exhibition Assistant, MFA, Interior Design)

We thank the Parsons Executive Dean’s Office and the Provost Office for their support of the festival. Special thanks to Anne Gaines (Parsons Executive Dean and Co-Director, Parsons CareLab); Nyasia Thomas (Program Administrator, SDS); Afiya Lewis (Parsons Web Developer); and Jason Nu (Parsons Assistant Director, Special Projects).