The outbreak of COVID-19 has been very stressful for most people, and fear and anxiety about such a contagious and deadly disease can often be overwhelming. However, at PDS, artists are continuing their craft and coping with their newfound physical separation by connecting their artistry with the community virtually.  

Usually, the gallery club co-heads senior Carly Kunkle, sophomore Linda Qu, and sophomore Bolin Shen hold weekly meetings with club members discussing details of their monthly gallery display. However, given the special circumstances right now, the club is now initiating an online project on the gallery’s Instagram page. When interviewing co-head Linda Qu on the gallery club’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak, Qu said, “We’re documenting life during COVID-19 through an array of mediums, from art to music to walks around the neighborhood.” Although the gallery club is managing well online, there are evidently still some defects: “We can’t host two more shows that were scheduled to open for the rest of the year, one being the Upper School art show and the other being the Imagine the Possibilities 25-year anniversary show.” Luckily, Qu says that it won’t stop the club from planning a virtual gallery in the foreseeable future, so keep an eye out!

Similar to the gallery club, the Artist’s Network at PDS is also using social media as a way to share student works. Sophomore Co-head Bolin Shen said, “We want to display all mediums possible; we have fine art, digital art, photography, ceramics, culinary arts, furniture, architecture, etc. Now we’re featuring works from students every day. Since we cannot have physical meetings anymore, this is the next best thing we can do to promote the artist community at PDS.” Shen said that this way of sharing and connecting has been very successful and allowed artists to get much more exposure than expected. 

Despite the challenges of physical separation during COVID-19, the arts at PDS are still thriving virtually, uniting the community together and honoring all the talented artists at PDS.