Michigan State University Digital Humanities Partners with Mellon Foundation’s “Just Futures” Initiative

Creativity in the Time of Covid-19 launches

Michigan State University’s Digital Humanities & Literary Cognition Lab is collecting creative work people have been making throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly creative pieces that encourage new conversations, activism, and creativity around the racial and social injustices revealed by the pandemic. Everyone who submits a creative piece and agrees to be included will:

1. Have their creative work and connected stories documented and included in a major online collection, and have the option to share them with wider audiences
2. Contribute to history by preserving crucial moments and memories from COVID-19 for themselves and future generations
3. Help ensure that diverse peoples, experiences, and communities are represented in our collective stories about the pandemic

The project’s coordinators welcome everyone, from first time creators to experienced professional artists, to share their artwork. Additionally, they welcome all forms of expression. Creativity can be defined in many ways, and project leaders are interested in anything people have used to help understand, process, and communicate the individual experience of the pandemic, including but not limited to:

• painting
• pottery
• sculpture
• protest art
• traditional arts
• storytelling
• fiber arts
• poetry
• fiction
• comics
• Tiktok videos
• photography
• cooking
• coloring
• building
• gardening
• making music
• dancing
  

And, other everyday activities that have become meaningful during the pandemic.

Everything submitted will be showcased in an online archive and considered for inclusion in the project’s physical exhibitions.

Individuals can help by responding to the call for artists attached in the link below and by sharing this link throughout their networks. 

Link: https://tinyurl.com/CreativityInTheTimeOfCovid19

This project is funded by the Mellon Foundation “Just Futures” initiative. For questions, reach out to Micah Ling, or, if you would like assistance distributing the call for artists, reach out to the project’s Graduate Project Coordinators, Mitch Carr and Soohyun Cho, at [email protected]. Visit the Digital Humanities and Literary Cognition Lab website for more information.