Sharing art with the world
An exhibit at Studio Place Arts in Barre, Vermont, as displayed on the Vermont Art Online website. (Image Provided)
Many new innovations came to life during the pandemic, some as a mode of survival, and a number of them have benefits far beyond the present time.
The art world saw that trend abundantly, and one result is Vermont Art Online, where galleries and museums can share their exhibits virtually. The need for this resource was instantly apparent in mid-March 2020, with everything closing, said Sarah Briggs, who was then a Sabarsky Fellow at Middlebury College Museum of Art. She teamed up with Sarah Laursen, formerly the museum’s curator of Asian art and a former assistant professor at Middlebury.
It so happened they had been talking about creating digital programs at the museum, when the need for online exhibits grew exponentially overnight — everywhere. They quickly got a plan together, and partnered with Gillian Sewake, of the Vermont Curators Group, to help spread the word about a new online space being created for Vermont galleries and museums to show work and reach the public.
A mere 10 days from when the idea was hatched, the team had created the website for Vermont Art Online. They instructed galleries and museums to send them “360” images using the Google Street View app, showing a complete view of their exhibits, as if they were there in person. Then, they sent those images to the Vermont Art Online team, who used the online platform Thinglink to stitch them together into seamless virtual tours people could easily use.
Many of the directors and staff creating the images were surprised at how easy it was, Briggs recalled.
“We wanted to create something that would be free and user-intuitive," she said. Online tutorials and some extra help was available to anyone needing it.
Since Vermont Art Online launched on March 25, 2020, there have been over 11,000 visitors to the website. Briggs sees a clear benefit well beyond the pandemic period.
“Galleries and museums, even with in-person access will continue to have more of an online presence,” she said. “People have realized they've reached new audiences."
This has certainly been the case at Artistree Gallery in South Pomfret, Vermont, which took advantage of this opportunity through the Vermont Curators Group. Deborah Goodwin, exhibits coordinator at the gallery, said online shows will continue to be an important part of their offerings.
“We've continued to put the shows online even after we re-opened (in June 2020), and we have had people find us online and actually buy work, even after the shows have physically come down,” she said.
Sewake recalled a time early on in the pandemic, when the tutorial guides created by Vermont Art Online helped her make the 360 images for the curator at The Museum of Everyday Life, a small, one-person operation in Glover, Vermont. The help couldn’t have been more timely, since the curator was an ICU nurse.
“Because I had these great how-to guides, and because it was really easy to use, I just did it for the curator and was able to get that to the Vermont Art Online team," Sewake said.
Though Briggs’ time at Middlebury is over, she’ll continue to be involved with the Vermont Curators Group. She was glad to have the opportunity to help artists at their time of need.
“I wanted to contribute something positively,” Briggs said. “I’m not a first responder or a doctor, so, it’s something I could do.”
The art world has yielded some particularly tremendous work over the past year, and the sources of inspiration seem endless. The lasting, positive impact of that creativity and innovation are similarly boundless. Creating a dynamic online space for artists to share their work is not only a benefit for the artists, but a benefit for the state as well. Undoubtedly, even more people now know — and will know — about the incredible work happening in the art community in the Green Mountains. What better way to expand the community’s borders, and welcome more people into it?
— Gareth Henderson
To explore exhibits on Vermont Art Online, go to the homepage and click on “Virtual Exhibits” in the upper-right corner. The resulting menu offers a map of Vermont with clickable exhibit locations, a catalog and a viewing guide. The “Art At Home” tab offers the tutorials mentioned in the above article.
