Prior to COVID-19, this project was conceived as an in-person exhibition about current conditions in LIC. With COVID-19, this was no longer feasible. Our challenge was creating a virtual experience that would replicate the same community experience a patron would have, in-person. And, as COVID-19 has created an uncertain future for many NYC artists, we shifted our project’s focus to capturing and archiving many of the stories and creative works that are being made during the pandemic by our local community.

Our goal is to virtually bring an art experience to our community and to raise awareness on archiving our COVID-19 experiences. Our website includes:

• Artists Navigating 2020: LIC artists submit work that they created during COVID-19.
• Time Capsule: Community members submit items that reflect their 2020 experiences.
• In the Artist’s Studio: Conduct interviews with LIC artists about their COVID-19 experiences, highlight their past and current work by creating VR tours of their studio, invite them to speak on a virtual panel

The project launched September 15, 2020 and is ongoing. Indicators of our success is based on data supplied as of September 28, 2020:

• Artists Navigating 2020: Featured 59 artists/59 assets uploaded to Urban Archive for digital preservation (more assets will be added)
• “In the Artist’s Studio”:
  • VR Studio Tour: 159 views/Facebook Live panel: 80 views at end of stream, and currently 246 views total
  • Website: 1,627 visits

As a new branch, this project created valuable local partnerships with Culture Lab LIC, LIC-A and Queens Memory.