Students of MONT-105G | Prof. Bridget Franco, Spanish
Instagram and Public Art
On March 13, 2020 students at the College of the Holy Cross ended their in-person classes and left campus as the COVID-19 situation worsened. Instead of a planned Tape Art Mural project, the first-year students enrolled In Prof. Bridget Franco's year-long seminar “Images from Latin America” collaborated on a collective and virtual Public Art Project. This project offered a way to keep the class connected to each other and to their surroundings as the unprecedented situation unfolded. We do not know what the future holds or how we will be affected by this global pandemic. However, as students were encouraged to see in this course, public art in Latin America (and throughout the world) has historically emerged as a response to crisis and as a means of communicating with a wide range of people during difficult times. Our virtual Public Art Project was a creative outlet for our seminar to stay connected despite our physical distance, to document how the COVID-19 crisis has affected individuals and communities in Latin America specifically, and to share the ups and downs of our individual experiences through the collective outlet of public art.
Students were asked to post a weekly image to the coursewide Instagram page between March 23-April 27. They were encouraged to post images from a variety of categories over the course of the project, including images, videos, or news story about how the COVID-19 crisis has affected individuals or communities in Latin America; examples of Latin American (public) art; images of artwork that they or someone else created which captured an emotion that students were feeling or that resonated with them on a particular day; or images of (public) art from students’ local communities that related to the coursework. All posts were accompanied by a brief caption that included a short message as well as any relevant known information about the artwork and the user’s complete first name and first letter of last name.
The screenshot below is a sample of the stories posted by students as part of the project.
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Instagram and Public Art
On March 13, 2020 students at the College of the Holy Cross ended their in-person classes and left campus as the COVID-19 situation worsened. Instead of a planned Tape Art Mural project, the first-year students enrolled In Prof. Bridget Franco's year-long seminar “Images from Latin America” collaborated on a collective and virtual Public Art Project. This project offered a way to keep the class connected to each other and to their surroundings as the unprecedented situation unfolded. We do not know what the future holds or how we will be affected by this global pandemic. However, as students were encouraged to see in this course, public art in Latin America (and throughout the world) has historically emerged as a response to crisis and as a means of communicating with a wide range of people during difficult times. Our virtual Public Art Project was a creative outlet for our seminar to stay connected despite our physical distance, to document how the COVID-19 crisis has affected individuals and communities in Latin America specifically, and to share the ups and downs of our individual experiences through the collective outlet of public art.
Students were asked to post a weekly image to the coursewide Instagram page between March 23-April 27. They were encouraged to post images from a variety of categories over the course of the project, including images, videos, or news story about how the COVID-19 crisis has affected individuals or communities in Latin America; examples of Latin American (public) art; images of artwork that they or someone else created which captured an emotion that students were feeling or that resonated with them on a particular day; or images of (public) art from students’ local communities that related to the coursework. All posts were accompanied by a brief caption that included a short message as well as any relevant known information about the artwork and the user’s complete first name and first letter of last name.
The screenshot below is a sample of the stories posted by students as part of the project.
︎ More information may be found on Instagram by clicking here.