Creating Community During COVID-19: A Virtual Art Gallery to Address Social Isolation During a Pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic, a public health crisis, significantly impacted millions of people around the world. “Creating Community During COVID-19” is a community-engaged virtual art gallery that explores resilience, social cohesion, and creativity during the onset of the pandemic in the United States. It aimed to address social isolation and encourage inclusion at a large public university in the early days of the pandemic. The community was invited to submit artworks that reflected how they are staying connected during the pandemic. The artworks were then qualitatively analyzed and highlighted three key themes: (1) reflecting (turning inward), (2) advocating (turning outward), and (3) engaging (coming together). This arts-based project demonstrates promise as a creative approach for promoting social cohesion and positive health and well-being, especially in times of uncertainty.

Assessment of Need

COVID-19 disrupted the global economy, overloaded health care systems, delayed educational milestones, and tore the social fabric critical for supporting mental health (Haleem & Javaid, 2020). The health impacts of the pandemic reach beyond mortality and include decreased psychological well-being (Galea et al., 2020; Marroquin et al., 2020). Fortunately, the arts have a positive role to play in promoting health and action during crises such as the pandemic (Fancourt & Finn, 2019). For example, the arts have fostered creative collaborations during the COVID-19 pandemic as seen in the University of Florida Arts and COVID-19 Resource Repository, the United Nations COVID-19 Response Creative Content Hub that shares creative works to communicate important messages about combating the spread of the virus and uniting the world, and the Amplifier emergency campaign for art in response to COVID-19 that promotes mental health, well-being, and social change.

Description of the Innovation—Creating Community During COVID-19

This practice note describes a community-engaged virtual art gallery addressing social isolation in a large university setting during the first wave of the pandemic in the United States. The project was developed and managed by an interdisciplinary team at the University of Pittsburgh, including members of the Graduate School of Public Health and Office of the Provost, with support from the University Center for Creativity, and the Provost’s Office. Calls for submissions were circulated via university networks and social media platforms (e.g., Facebook, Twitter). The project was open to all members of the university and wider community, including students, faculty, staff, and their friends and families. Eighteen participants with affiliations across the university submitted artworks in spring 2020 (one undergraduate student, four graduate students, two postdocs, five faculty, two staff, and four friends/family members).

Participants responded to the prompt: “During the COVID-19 pandemic, how have you stayed connected and maintained community connections?” Submissions were open to all creative mediums (e.g., painting, drawing, filmmaking, and more). Participants submitted artworks via an online survey and responded to open-ended questions about their works: (1) What is the title? (2) What medium did you use? (3) What was your inspiration? (4) What issues did you address/explore? (5) How did creating this make you feel or impact you? All participants agreed to have their artwork and responses publicly shared.

We used qualitative analysis to determine key themes of the artworks and open-ended responses. The two authors applied a final set of codes to the data. A publicly available, online virtual gallery highlights shared experiences and seeks to stimulate discussions (https://publichealth.pitt.edu/home/about/covid-19/creating-community).

Impact and Outcomes

The submissions included digital drawings, paintings, short films, chalk art, word art, photography, embroidery, knitting, and poetry.

Reflecting (Turning Inward)

Participants discussed self-reflection such as carving out time to reflect upon and engage in activities that bring joy. For some, getting outside and appreciating nature helped to nurture these reflections. One shared,

Almost every morning I go for a walk before work. It’s my chance to breathe and reset as I prepare for days packed with meetings. Those walks and connections with nature have become even more important since COVID-19 and are a way to help me deal with anxiety I feel about the uncertainties (associated with COVID-19). I find the connection with nature grounding and particularly love the days when the sun shines. In those moments I believe that things will get better.

For others, artworks represented the process of reflecting upon the importance of relationships. One shared,

As an introvert, maintaining friendships takes a lot of energy. However, I am keenly aware that my close friendships have profoundly impacted my life. Being socially isolated has brought about a new awareness of how much I need people in my life on a daily basis.

Advocating (Turning Outward)

Other artworks explored themes of conveying messages through creativity. For a group of students, their shared piece embraced the theme of sharing messages of hope: “We wanted to convey a positive message that helps encapsulate what occupational therapy is all about . . . we aim to instill hope in our clients and support them on their journey to independence” (see Figure 1).

Figure 1.

Occupational Therapy Students Shared Messages of Hope

Engaging (Coming Together)

Several artists explored themes of engaging with others or coming together in their artworks. In one short film, a participant captured the essence of the Jewish Sabbath, Shabbat, during COVID-19, in which she filmed her and her family participating in the celebration virtually to connect with others: “(the film captures) lighted candles, the blessing over wine, singing and pausing from the overwhelming everyday concerns to reflect on our lives and how we are spending our time. Creating the film brought me a measure of peace.” In another project, the creators displayed a quote from Maya Angelou in a window painting with the goal of engaging members of the community:

Creating the piece helped us to feel connected to those around us, and offered us a way to creatively, and from a distance, interact with people in our neighborhood during this time that we are not able to communicate and interact as we normally would.

Lessons Learned

These findings are consistent with Fancourt and Finn’s (2019) work and illuminate opportunities to address mental health needs during emergencies and challenging situations, such as getting out into nature or creating a piece of artwork with an inspiring message. The behaviors that community members embraced during the pandemic helped them to feel less isolated. Participants shared that creating the pieces and embracing artistic methods allowed them to have fun; brought joy; provided comfort, a sense of calm, and a feeling of accomplishment; helped to connect with family and friends, and provided numerous other benefits. Creative approaches show promise for engaging communities in activities to promote positive health and well-being. Lessons learned about embracing the arts to stay connected and maintain mental health and well-being are not limited to COVID-19; these critical themes may also be useful for future planning for other types of emergencies.

Implications for Practice

This arts-based project demonstrates promise as a creative approach for promoting social cohesion and positive health and well-being, especially in times of uncertainty. It can serve as a model in the development of risk mitigation plans and interventions aiming to improve mental health and social cohesion during disasters (Fancourt & Finn, 2019).