The submissions are still coming in a month after Oak Bay’s Gage Gallery arts collective launched its Challenge Crisis with Creativity project, and they’re looking for more.
The project invites the public to use art and engage their feelings during the COVID-19 pandemic. Submissions will be collected and one day a book can be created from the art.
“We have a lot to adjust to, nothing is as it used to be, and I feel we need to express what we are going through to make sense of it all, to stay well,” said Gabriella Hirt, a member of Gage Gallery.
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The collective is excited to announce that there will be a physical exhibition for the Challenge Crisis with Creativity community art project once restrictions are lifted and the gallery can open again.
“This will be part of the first exhibit going up after the long closure,” Hirt said.
Gage Gallery also posts a suggested theme each week to help prompt artists.
They’ve included Social Distancing, Can’t Stop the Spring, and as of April 23, Pandemic Connection.
“We at the Gage are really looking forward to seeing what people express, how it is similar or different,” Hirt said. “We want to focus on something fun and positive that makes us all feel that we belong. This is an unprecedented time, and our unique and collective experiences are worth being shared and collected – and even archived in a book.”
Send contributions to Ashley Riddett, a University of Victoria art history and visual studies graduate student who is leading the project, at riddettgreen@gmail.com.
“It will be a wonderful way to digest what we went through and to celebrate our community’s resilience, diversity and creativity,” Hirt said.
