Southampton Arts Center Community Art Share: A Virtual Exhibition

Way back in March, when the coronavirus lockdown was just getting underway, Southampton Arts Center (SAC) asked the community to submit art for a special Community Art Share virtual exhibition. SAC Artistic Director Amy Kirwin completed her final cut/update of the video featuring all accepted work, and reflecting a region brimming with talent and creativity, on Monday, May 11. It’s available now on the Southampton Arts Center YouTube channel.

“We have been blown away by the stylistic diversity of the entries as well as the amount of people who have embraced this call to action,” Kirwin says of the video, pointing out that it includes 160 works in a wide array of styles and media. “Some are pure whimsy while others are a statement about our current reality. But all of them make for a wonderful collective virtual art show that all can enjoy and find a sense of peace while viewing.”

Undaunted by having to temporarily close the gallery space due to social distancing restrictions, SAC’s invitation encouraged all artists, including kids, to email images of their paintings, drawing, sculpture, photography, video and any other media that inspired them.

The final, nearly 25-minute exhibition video presents work by well-known and professional artists, along with those showing for the very first time and everyone in-between. Selected submissions cover all genres and styles, from lovely traditional landscape paintings and striking nature photos by folks such as James Katsipis (“Welcome to my Lair”), Susanne Corbelletta (“Bay Breeze”), Lucy Cavalcanti (“Untitled Sky”), Larissa Danovitch (“Bristle”) and Sara Cedar Miller (“Tiana Bay”), to a kinetic wind-up robot by Paton Miller (“Self-Portrait”), a green clay creation by 14-year-old Gigi Lama (“Crush Palace”), a start-to-finish video of a rabbit being drawn digitally in real time by Miles Partington (“Making of Brab”), found object wreaths by Nancy Hardy Baldwin (“Peace, Love, Equality”) and even action figure photos by Trevor Williams (“Breakfast at Tatooine”).

SAC’s Community Art Share is a fun survey of what artistic East Enders are making right now, and it should inspire anyone watching to create some work of their own. If there was ever a time to try, this is it.

Learn more about SAC’s virtual programming and what’s to come at southamptonartscenter.org.