Unconsumed
Case Study: Community-Based Art Education, taught by Melinda Spooner
NSCAD University, Winter 2020

Unconsumed is a community-based art project initiated by graduate students at NSCAD University. It aims to document living knowledge and create connections through skill-sharing during the uncertainty of Covid-19. Rather than prescribing art projects to a socially-distanced community, we chose to highlight the communities we are already part of, which have mobilized, miraculously, during this unprecedented time. We learn of farm stores selling out of chickens, long wait times for seeds, and hear over and over that someone is starting sourdough. For those who have the shelter, ability, and the means, self-sustainability and resource-sharing seem to be cropping up as grounding, rewarding, and creative challenges.

The meaning of sustainability in this project, however, is not limited to essential goods. Things like humor, observation, handwork, and movement hold new significance while sheltering-in-place. Participants were invited to contribute 8.5 x 11 pages and responded to many different questions: How are you spending your time? Are there skills you are learning, knowledges you are remembering, tips you are receiving? The pages that follow reflect the many ways that people in our extended communities are thinking and making on a daily level in response to Covid-19. They are illustrative, descriptive, informational, imaginative, minimal, abstracted, designed, and doodled.

Participating artists:

Aggrey Agwata
Rebecca Baccardax
Sadie Bills
Ali Zargari Ouroozaki
Tamsin Sloots
& more...