When the UBC Okanagan campus closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, art student Sara Spencer moved her studio into her mother’s garage. (courtesy UBCO / YouTube)
When the COVID-19 pandemic curtailed classes at schools and universities across Canada last March, thousands of art students instantly lost access to studios and workshops. It was more than just an inconvenience – for a time, the viability of spring graduation was also thrown into doubt.
Like other students set to graduate from UBC Okanagan, Sara Spencer was not going to let this stand in her way. She shifted production into her mother’s garage, assembled a 12-foot illuminated sculpture, and then created an installation in a nearby grove of willow trees.
Despite lamenting the loss of an opportunity to exhibit the work publicly with her classmates at the BFA show in Kelowna, Spencer sounds a positive note in a YouTube video that documents how she adapted to changing circumstances.
“It’s obviously really disappointing that we don’t get to have the normal exhibition … and have everybody together,” she says.
“But I think it’ll be really good to have the virtual exhibition online, and be able to reach so many more people.”
Image of Sara Spencer’s installation, "Anticipation," was included in the online BFA grad show at UBC Okanagan in Kelowna. (Courtesy UBCO)
The ubiquitous grad show has long been a highlight for students, families, schools and audiences. Aside from final grades often hinging on the art featured in these annual exhibitions, there are also tandem values of celebration and excitement for the new, as students move to the next phase of their lives.
Yet for the class of 2020, this rite of passage has been like none other. Under incredible pressure, schools transitioned swiftly to create online exhibitions. But if art is food for the soul, how can virtual food sustain one’s spirit?
We all recognize that unless art is made specifically for the Internet, the translation from art-in-the-real to online reproduction will neither fulfil the work’s purpose nor easily satisfy creators, producers and audiences. But if the choice is virtual art or no art, then what’s to be done?
To better understand these conundrums, challenges and opportunities, Galleries West contacted art programs at the largest universities and art schools between Winnipeg and Victoria, in recent weeks, to find out how they are managing during the pandemic.
Seven of them – the University of Victoria, the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, the Alberta University of the Arts, the University of Lethbridge, the University of Saskatchewan and the University of Regina – provided written responses to our questions.
Without doubt, all are faced with seemingly insurmountable challenges and a moving target amidst uncertainty about how the pandemic will evolve, both regionally and globally.
Most institutions said they had to cancel their BFA grad show, instead mounting a virtual exhibition for their students. Some also produced a catalogue, while others replaced their open houses with virtual tours.
The BFA graduating class at the University of Regina took a personal approach with an online show that featured photographs of each student. (Courtesy U of R)
At the University of Regina, students likely realized that an online format risked looking no different than many other virtual shows – or even an Instagram feed. To combat this, they took a more personal approach with Standing Room Only. Instead of instant art, the menu features compelling photographs of students in their studios taken earlier in the semester by BFA student Mika Abbott. Online viewers navigate through each creator’s photo to access rolling images of their art and written statements.
Personal connections, obviously, are missing when you can’t see the real art or meet the artist at a grad show. This sense of loss was dealt with empathetically at the University of Lethbridge, where faculty members sent personal emails congratulating each graduating student, also noting that they remain available to provide support.
Tapping into a similar vein of wellness, University of Saskatchewan professor jake moore notes that art is “one of the social determinants of health and aids in the development of critical thinking and social structure through non-verbal means and shared experience.”
At USask, this means MFA students will be allowed to install their work in campus exhibition spaces, in isolation, at the end of August or the beginning of September. Although the exhibits will be closed to the public, members of each student’s oral defence committee will be able to visit the show individually.
“It was felt that the process of installation and the physical experience of committee members in the work is an essential part of the process of attaining a studio art degree when the mediums engaged are not intentionally Internet based,” says professor Lisa Birke.
The Alberta University of the Arts created a vast online grad show that included students Simone Saunders, Caleb Scholes and Gabby Coates. (Courtesy AUArts)
Meanwhile, the Alberta University of the Arts in Calgary created not just a vast online grad show that has been viewed more than 8,000 times, but also $1,500 scholarships for 17 students to “reflect on the global crisis” and creatively address the topic of “how art, craft and design can enrich Alberta’s creative communities and economies after the pandemic,” says André Plante, the university’s academic vice president.
Looking ahead, he notes that AUArts is anticipating a 20 per cent drop in fall enrolment due to the pandemic, something roughly consistent with what appears to be happening at other post-secondary institutions.
He expects most studio classes to be conducted online and says course content is being adjusted for processes and materials that can be used safely at home. The university is also compiling a bank of tools that can be loaned to students.
The opening image for "Are We All We Are," the grad show for art students at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, B.C. (Vernice Tse, "Drawings," 2020 courtesy the artist/SFU)
In attempting to draw out virtues from the challenges facing the virtual class of 2020, it’s important to recognize the many vibrant strings to this complex bow. And while students no doubt are having many different experiences, Simon Fraser University noted that all students at its school for contemporary arts were able to adjust and find ways to complete work for their final show outside the campus studios.
Cedric Bomford, the chair of the University of Victoria’s visual arts department, praises the remarkable spirit of the graduating class.
“We have many students going on to grad school, some who have started online galleries and many who continue to be passionate about the big issues facing our society at the moment – including climate change, Indigenous rights and continued racial inequality,” he says. “Our student body is very involved and active, and our teaching faculty are incredibly proud of how they have been able to continue to be active in the community.”
UVic is hoping to run most of its studio art classes face-to-face in the fall, while adhering to public heath rules.
“It is important that we stand for the unique aspect of our program and pedagogy – and a cornerstone of this is face-to-face classroom instruction,” says Bomford.
At UVic, and elsewhere, large classes, such as art history, will likely be taught online.
A page from the online catalogue for the University of Victoria shows work by Malak Alraygi. (Courtesy UVic)
Certainly, much more could be written about how institutions are coping and planning as they move forward. But with so much still up in the air for the fall semester, it is probably premature.
To paraphrase Hippocrates, life is short, but art is long. Optimistically, some of the approaches taken by art institutions and students may serve others, even though the decisions were difficult, at a time when existence felt perilous. Long live art, and may the crisis be fleeting. ■
Dick Averns and Galleries West would like to thank everyone who assisted in the research for this article. The topic is sensitive and the timing difficult: the wealth of information provided could easily fill another article.
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