Pandemic s Effects On Artists Lives, Society On Display In Untitled, 2020
The pandemic has taken a significant toll on arts venues and on creators. But some artists also recognize the positives that have come from the forced changes in their lives in particular, three artists whose work appears in an exhibition at the Portland Museum of Art’s current show, “Untitled, 2020: Art from Maine in a Time.”
“With 2020 came a global pandemic that forced fight or flight. I came to Maine and temporarily moved into Grandma’s old mobile home,” says Eleanor Kipping in a video essay, walking in a red dress through the long grass of a bucolic field in northern Maine. On the left side of the split screen are a series of close-up shots of city architecture that unfurl into images of bodegas and black musicians.
Language Barriers, Cramped Apartments: Immigrant Families Struggle With Schooling During A Pandemic
Many students have struggled to keep up during the coronavirus pandemic, after schools first closed a little more than a year ago and then most of them re-opened for at least some in-person learning.
It’s been particularly challenging for immigrant and refugee students and their families.
Wednesdays are the most hectic day of the week for the Al Hoshan family, who are originally from Syria and are now trying to build a new life in Maine after moving from Arizona about a year-and-a-half ago.
It’s when all the kids are learning at home. Most are connecting to remote classes on an electronic device, each tucked into various corners of their two-bedroom house in Augusta.
The number of people relocating to Maine ramped up sharply in 2020. Many were fleeing denser urban settings and lured by the prospects of working remotely