Mr. Lopilato, a teacher at B-CC and head of the Museum of the Contemporary American Teenager (MoCAT), was given an opportunity by the Smithsonian to display an exhibit at the Folklife Festival in 2025. The exhibit’s theme being, “The American Teenager.” 

Five B-CC students are currently working with Smithsonian curators and the Folklife Festival leadership, and have agreed to a Memorandum of Understanding to create a blueprint for this exhibit.

“Teens are the future,” said Mr. Lopilato while explaining why he decided to aid the students participating in the exhibit for the 2025 Folklife Festival, adding, “there is no culture more important to American culture than teen culture.” 

This interactive exhibit is meant to showcase teen culture, including school life, social life, and how teens express themselves. MoCAT will showcase these aspects of teen culture by building a high school hallway on the National Mall, which contains five open-air rooms and an auditorium. Each room models different elements of the teenage experience; socializing, expression/identity, sports, mental health, and acedemics. 

According to Mr. Lopilato, the goal of the exhibit is for visitors to be educated and entertained by the exhibit while grasping the struggles and joys of teen life. “We thought that museums don’t do enough to directly engage with teenagers, and this opportunity amplifies work that’s by and for teenagers,” says senior Isabella Kreidler, one of the students involved in meetings with the Smithsonian curators.  . Though there are five students pitching ideas for the festival, more are encourged to assist with the creation process of the exhibit coming summer of 2025, as well as supporting MoCAT with future projects.

MoCAT was established in 2017, exhibits taking place on Wisconson Avenue, when Lopilato gave his students an assignment to create a museum about the teenage experience. Since then, MoCAT has built an online presence through their website, mocatpopup.org, which holds a plethora of articles, creative writings, podcasts, and art. However, MoCAT’s presence has been on hiatus since the COVID-19 shutdown, with this coming exhibit being the revival of its projects.

Every year, the Smithsonian holds a two week long Folklife Festival in Washington D.C. to celebrate different cultures, heritages, and traditions, which are expressed through research-based presentations and pieces of art.