The Creative Conversation series was born out of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 as a way to highlight local artists, entrepreneurs, arts professionals, and change-makers in the community. These conversations focused on building community and connections during a pandemic. They were informative about programs, organizations, and projects in our community that intersect with the arts.
The series took place as video interviews that were livestreamed on ACJC’s Facebook page with the recordings later posted on YouTube. We had two seasons of Creative Conversations and a total of 39 episodes.
Creative Conversation Series
Resilience, Reflection, Rebuilding: Artists Respond to COVID-19 Art Kits
In July 2020, local artists were asked to create a reflection of their experiences and feelings during the COVID-19 pandemic and to consider the pandemic as a catalyst toward change. The exhibition, title Resilience, Reflection, Rebuilding: Artists Respond to COVID-19 (RRR) ran from August 2020 through January 2021 at the Johnson County Arts & Heritage Center and online. The exhibition inspired a series of companion programs designed to help our community build resiliency, including take home art kits.
Engaging in the arts — even for short periods of time — reduces stress, enhances coping and emotional regulation, and increases well-being. Take home art kits were developed in partnership with the Johnson County Mental Health Center and Johnson County Arts & Heritage Center. Their purpose was to provide an arts based activity for kids and families during the winter months and to help decrease stress and feelings of isolation and mental health conversation prompts to help families talk about the pandemic.
Five versions of take home art kits were created – each featuring a different artist an artwork from the RRR exhibition. One hundred art kits of a specific artist and artwork were created (500 art kits total). Each art kit consisted of an art card that included an image of one of five RRR artworks, a creative activity prompt, mental health prompts, a QR code for a participant survey and arts supplies. The community was invited to pick up art kits at the Johnson County Arts & Heritage Center beginning in January 2021. By the end of February, 500 art kits had been dispersed to the community.
According survey results, 65% of participants found the mental health discussion questions were helpful in discussing current events and 100% of participants indicated that they felt good or great after completing the art activity. Additionally, 100% of participants also shared that they would participate in the art kit program again.
The following report includes more detailed participant responses. The Arts Council of Johnson County is grateful to Johnson County Museum and JCPRD Fine and Performing Arts staff, and JCDS Emerging Artists Studio artists for their help in building the art kits. Thank you to our partners at the Johnson County Mental Health Center and Johnson County Arts & Heritage Center for their partnership in developing this valuable community program.
Resilience, Reflection, Rebuilding: Artists Respond to COVID-19
Engaging in the arts — even for short periods of time — reduces stress, enhances coping and emotional regulation, and increases well-being. Local artists were asked to create a reflection of their experiences and feelings during the Covic-19 pandemic and to consider the pandemic as a catalyst toward change. This exhibition ran from August 2020 through January 2021 and inspired a series of companion programs including: