Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design | MIAD Gallery at The Ave: 2024

Culture Starters: Emerging from Quarantine

08/05/24 – 09/21/24

The pandemic dramatically halted the world as we knew it, and creatives within the art, design, and cultural production field were no exception to this phenomena. During the lockdown, the talents and gifts that creatives bring to the world were pushed in new ways that both strained and flourished under such intense conditions. For many, this period of time had a profound effect on our relationship between new technologies and an emergence or return to homesteading. And for creatives, this period of time had a profound effect on the development of their talents: using technology and the digital world and a return to analogue practices with a focus on the handmade. Challenges can create complex opportunities to make something new or unimagined, and for creatives, the pandemic has been a time of ingenuity in a time of chaos. 

What happens to the creative practice when forced to incubate, grow, and mature in close quarters? “Culture Starters” asks to consider culture, from sourdough starter to new social cues grown from the emergence of virtual meetings, and creative ideas that bubbled and grew inside of the lock down through the pandemic, inspiring new ways that creatives adapted to approach making.