“Elevator to the Moon: Retro-Future Visions of Space,” the Yuri’s Night exhibition at Artisphere, Rosslyn, VA

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Copied from Dana Ellyn's press page, October 18, 2026.

"Yuri's Night" a group exhibit at Artisphere in Rosslyn, VA March - June 2012 Ask any Economist or Weatherman and they will agree, predicting the future is hard, and they aren't even prognosticating about the distant future! From flying cars to meals-in-a-pill, there are numerous exciting concepts that never made it off the drawing board. The greatest, and perhaps most wacky, disparities between future predictions and contemporary realities is in the realm of space travel. Why is my home not equipped with a transporter pad? Vacations on the moon were supposed to be commonplace by now! Grandma should be spending her golden years on Mars, instead of Florida. From the comfort of our 21st century lives, we can smugly point out where 20th century predictions went awry. The communicator that Spock uses only makes calls to the Enterprise, while the cell phone in your pocket makes calls, texts, plays music, surfs the web and addicts you to Angry Birds. But without imagining Spock's communicator, would your superior 21st century self even have a cell phone? Even if it turned out completely different than planned, the dreams of scientists, engineers and artists have shaped our future. In Elevator to the Moon: Retro-Future Visions of Space, 15 contemporary artists draw inspiration from 20th century predictions to create work that celebrates beautifully flawed ideas and inspires new visions for the future. Exhibiting Artists: Chris Bishop, Scott Brooks, Jared Davis, Dana Ellyn, Elstabo, Todd Gardner, Linas Garsys, Sherill Anne Gross, Emily Greene Liddle, Rob Lindsay, Chris Rackley, Matt Sesow, Scott Speck, Steve Strawn, Andrew Wodzianski