Image on right courtesy Vital Spaces
If you've been spending a lot of time online lately (and who hasn't?), you've probably gotten wind of a fun new social media trend wherein quarantined arts fans recreate iconic works of visual art with whatever they have laying around.
Here's a little example from the Instagram account @tussenkunstenquarantaine:
It's a pretty fun project that's spreading like wildfire, and it recently caught the attention of local arts nonprofit Vital Spaces.
The organization is in the business of renting out otherwise empty buildings and then providing that space at low-cost to artist types. It has housed some impressive folks, including hip-hop artist Raashan Ahmad and curatorial team Cafecito Collective. And now, with the new #NMTwinning project, members hope to expand the reach while engaging folks, connecting them with local institutions and even handing out a little prize money.
The idea is simple: Comb through the online collections of the Museum of International Folk Art, the New Mexico Museum of Art, the Ralph T. Coe Center for the Arts, the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts or the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, find a piece that speaks to you and then recreate it in a post for Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. Just hashtag it #NMTwinning, and you're entered.
And though the concept has thus far widely stuck to straightforward visual recreations, Vital Spaces’ Executive Director Jonathan Boyd says the goal is not to stifle or define rigid parameters, but rather to inspire: Vital Spaces is looking for songs, poems, new paintings or even just simple representations; they just want people to get excited about art.
"The idea is to recreate, respond, be inspired by, pay homage to—we're opening a creative door," Boyd tells SFR. "It's not necessarily and explicitly asking for a floral bouquet for a Georgia O'Keeffe piece."
“It’s really open,” Vital Spaces’ Program Director Hannah Yohalem adds. “Part of the point is to get people exploring these great online collections and hopefully getting lost in them and excited.”
The #NMTwinning project even has funding through the Falling Colors Foundation, an organization which helps administer public and charitable funds to projects just like this one. Throughout the month of May, Vital Spaces will select winners at random by combing through the hashtag, and five weekly winners will each receive $200 which they can either keep or donate to the cause of their choice. Each week, a middle or high school-aged participant is guaranteed to win, too. At the end of May, three overall winners will be chosen and given $300 to keep or donate.
Boyd says the project could even wind up becoming a physical exhibit once quarantine restrictions are lifted.
Vital Spaces also continues to distribute free bags of art supplies to Santa Fe youths. Yohalem says the organization is currently working with manufacturers to obtain certain items, but generous donations have also helped fill up the bags with handy supplies. For up-to-date information, visit vitalspaces.org.
