The COVID-19 pandemic forced people all over the country to forgo any planned trips to their local art galleries, large and small, because they were all closed as part of the lockdown. It presented people with an interesting short-term challenge as to where they could best get their art and culture fix if the main galleries were all closed down.
The interesting thing is that not having access to grand galleries and museums is just a regular day for many Australians who live in distant suburbs and small towns. So, if you don’t have any galleries or art museums around you any day of the week, can you still appreciate art to the same degree? Of course you can! Here are some ideas as to how:
1. View Online Galleries
Let’s not forget that we do now live in the information age, and almost everything we do in life now has some kind of online equivalent. The same can be said for art galleries in 2022. Try visiting a
modern & contemporary art gallery online, and enjoy the breathtaking beauty and striking tones of all kinds of art from the comfort of your couch, or even while you’re still in bed.
Of course, there’s some disagreement about whether seeing art on screen is an equivalent experience, because the screen experience invariably fails to deliver a true depiction of the scale and grandeur of the art work in question. That’s a fair point, but you can at least the form, colour, style, message and more on your screen.
Online galleries are also better in some ways because the online space allows for more explanatory information to accompany each piece. The text is not restrained by the size of any plaque or information card, so viewers can enjoy a more detailed explanation, and even some critique of the work.
2. Attend Community Events
Community fairs and similar events may seem to be focused on things like jumble sales and vegetable-growing competitions, but there is actually very often some inclusion of the artistic, too. For example, community events may invite young, local artists to submit works for a competition: photographs, landscape painting, portraits, abstract work…where all ages and levels are welcome to participate.
You never know, you might encounter one of the “next big thing” Australian artists right there in your local community fair!
3. Watch Art Documentaries
Just as satellite TV once broadened the variety of channels and content that was available to watch on TV, online streaming services and video platforms like YouTube have broadened it to degrees perhaps never previously thought possible by anyone. Documentaries abound on all manner of topics, including the arts.
These are available to watch on mainstream services such as
Netflix, but you can find even more specialised content on sites like CuriosityStream. If you’re on a budget, just search YouTube for all kinds of artistic commentary, debate and discussion. You can learn so much in a single afternoon, and you are in full control of what you watch.
4. Create a Local Arts Group on Social Media
If you want to bring together like minds in your local area, why not create a Facebook group, for example, where you say you want other art-loving locals to come together and share resources, information, leads and news on artistic happenings in your area? You could even start to arrange your own events on the back of it, should it gather a large-enough following.
Setting up a group is free and takes mere minutes. Invite your local friends to join, or at least spread the word and within just a few days you could have a real active online community.
