Pandemic Lanscapes
Casey Ruble’s Visual Arts class, Art, Design and Politics, was slated to revolve around small group work with community partners. When the university transitioned to a virtual platform, she and her students innovated to move their community engaged learning online. They spearheaded this show within the larger archive, A JOURNAL OF THE PLAGUE YEAR: AN ARCHIVE OF COVID19, which has garnered accolades from the New York Times and Forbes. Fordham students collect images and write narratives documenting their experiences this spring. Some images, like graffiti on signs, or scapes of empty parks, tell a story of place and space in the era of COVID-19. Others, like “Notes from an Essential Worker,” demonstrate a family’s private heroism through a thoughtful engagement with a set of simple, quotidian artifacts. As the artist notes, “We don't see her in the morning anymore, but my mom is always there for us.”