A week ago from today, I hosted my first online exhibition! Traditionally, MA students celebrate their final semester at UNC with a group exhibition either on campus or at a local venue. This summer due to COVID-19 UNC moved our last classes online and canceled all events, including our group exhibition. This was very disappointing because I had been looking forward to this culminating event since I had applied to be in the program in 2018. Determined for us to share all of the art we had been working so hard to create over the past two years, I reached out to the director of UNC's galleries and asked if we could have our exhibition online. Pam was more than supportive and invited me to a Squarespace training. After learning web design, I contacted my cohort and through a collaborative effort we created the Art Ed. Cohort Exhibition on UNC's pop-up website at soaddigitalgallery.com. Last Tuesday, we launched the website and held a virtual reception. Family and friends joined us in a Zoom conference while I walked everyone through the website. Each artist had their own time to shine as they talked about their work and processes. Viewers interacted by asking questions and making comments. In a lot of ways, it turned out to be better than an in-person exhibition! People from all over the country were able to attend and those who did not make it to the live reception can still view the work at their leisure on their own time. I hope you will take the time to check out the show!
