This is Worcester (2026)
WHAT does worcester mean to you?
This growing archive brings together photographs, stories, and creative responses from the people and places that make this city home.
Your City.
Your Home.
Your Story.
Community Activations
2026 Black Heritage Juneteenth Festival
Featured in the festival's Kuumba Corner, children, families, and young adults were invited to reflect on their relationship with Worcester and on what it means to find or create a sense of home. Through art-making and conversation, participants explored what home, showing up, joy, celebration, and gathering mean to them.
Color the City Arts Festival
Co-produced by the Worcester Cultural Coalition and Create 508, the festival marked the 6th year of the City of Worcester’s annual celebration of creativity and community. Our activation invited festivalgoers to reflect on their relationship with the city, gathering stories from people with all kinds of connections to Worcester, from students spending the summer here to lifelong residents who were born and raised in the city.
UMass Chan Medical School Juneteenth Festival
Organized by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, the festival brought together doctors, staff, medical students, and the wider community for a day of celebration, connection, and cultural reflection. Alongside local Black vendors offering food, beauty, and artisan goods, the showcase featured interactive crafting stations, including This Is Your Archive’s art-making activation. Participants were invited to take a few minutes to step away from the demands of the day, rediscover their curiosity, and reconnect with their creative side through play.
Goals Beyond The Game
The Street Soccer Festival brought together children and families to commemorate the African countries that qualified for the 2026 World Cup. Through this activation, we invited participants of all backgrounds to reflect on what Worcester means to them and, more broadly, the ways a city can become a home away from home.
