Creativity in the Time of COVID-19

https://creativityandcovid19.org/s/ctc-19/page/About

Creativity in the Time of COVID-19: Art as a Tool for Combating Inequity and Injustice (CTC-19) is a project documenting how everyday people are using creativity to cope with the pandemic. Crowdsourcing examples of creativity during COVID-19, our public humanities collaboration focused on highlighting art as a tool for combating inequity and injustice.

The CTC-19 project includes physical exhibits as well as a digital archival collection of the works submitted by contributors from all over the globe. The project endeavored to reach those disproportionately impacted by the pandemic whenever possible. Intersectional and underrepresented identities were specifically sought for inclusion. COVID-19 continues to reveal profound structural disadvantages and inequities, causing minority communities to be disproportionately affected by the pandemic.

Previous partnership exhibitions in Buffalo, NY, Colorado Springs, and St. Louis took place in the Fall of 2023. These exhibitions aimed to represent diverse acts of creativity, which speak to the myriad ways the pandemic is being experienced within and across multiple communities.

Access and accessibility lie at the heart of this project. We see accessibility as a creative process not just a product created to reach standards outlined by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Our exhibitions work to set a new standard for accessible experiences in museums, universities, and online by including everything from braille, audio descriptions, and tactile art to respite spaces for grieving and times for adjusted sensory environments.

Creativity in the Time of COVID-19: Art as Medicine, a four-year project that began in January 2021 at Michigan State University’s College of Arts & Letters with support from a $3 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. I served as the grant co-author, undergraduate research lead and as an advisor in the later years. I would like to thank all members of the CTC-19 project and the DHLC Lab at Michigan State University for all their amazing work.

DHLC Lab Website: https://dhlc.cal.msu.edu/