“Every renaissance comes to the world with a cry, the cry of the human spirit to be free.”
~ Anne Sullivan

2020 was a year of scaffolding disasters, with each seemingly worse than the one before. We started the year with the anxiety of war in the air only for war to be exchanged for disease a few short months later. However, one thing we can reflect on, and show gratitude toward is the art renaissance that boomed at the start of the second decade. With everyone cooped inside, desperate to find any way to distract themselves from the constant pronouncements of death and increasing infection rates, we all looked to those whose importance was too often minimized.

From remixes of (metaphorical and literal) tone-deaf celebrity song medleys, to corona fanfics, and memes of “my first day outside after quarantine,” our world collectively was felled by this disease and the very capable and colorful hands of artists carried us through it. The covid-19 pandemic of 2020 left a lot of us feeling helpless and without any control. Whether it was pen, paper, paint, photoshop—all of these tools gave us back some of that control. Control over something we all have access to…our imagination.

***Covid Art Museum, artwork by Donna Adi and Riiko Sakkinen.