Design what matters.

Overview

  • The Process

    The Cultural Design Marathon uses a tested and evolving version of the engineering design process paired with intentionally facilitated prompts and activities to systemically walk through a variety of socially situated problems.

  • The Humans

    Facilitated by Dr. Chanel Beebe, an expert in design cognition and problem solving, the Cultural Design Marathon is a Human First endeavor, building on somatically liberative and systemically informed practices.

  • The Work

    The Cultural Design Marathon has been used to develop solutions for both collective and individual problems in its 10-year history. Solutions range from medical and technological innovations to communal and social awareness campaigns.

 

The Details

  • Tailored to your organization’s or students’ needs, the Cultural Design Marathon is a design sprint in which participants use the design process to identify and solve problems that matter to them. Problems can be posed by organizational leaders or can be selected by participants and sprints can last anywhere from 4 hours to 3 months depending on the goals of the organization.

  • The Cultural Design Marathon utilizes design thinking and the design process through a series of tailored facilitation prompts geared at allowing participants to:

    -have a rich and systemic inquiry into the history and context of problem areas

    -generate solutions/concepts to address those problem areas

    -create a plan for testing and prototyping solutions with the appropriate stakeholders

  • Creating using expertise from intergroup dialogue and engineering education, the science behind the facilitation of a Cultural Design Marathon is tailored to ensure engagement from all participants.

    Facilitation of a Cultural Design Marathon draws from the following work:

 

The Evolution

  • Cultural Hackathon

    Initially created in 2017, The Cultural Hackathon was the first name used to describe design events tailored to addressing social problems hosted by Beebe Arts LLC

  • Cultural Design Marathon

    In the Fall of 2021, The Cultural Hackathon was renamed “Cultural Design Marathon” to better reflect the activities and structure of the events.

  • 2026 Rebirth

    In 2026, The Cultural Design Marathon was rebirth with new branding and new offerings!