SUFFOLK COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE: Student Artists in Virtual Exhibit, RANSOM 2 on Instagram

By Press release submission

Oct 26, 2020

Suffolk County Community College issued the following announcement on Oct. 23.

Suffolk County Community College Associate Professor of Visual Arts Meredith Starr always tries to take her students’ learning experience beyond the classroom’s walls. “Students appreciate real-world opportunities,” Starr said, and despite the COVID-19 pandemic, she was determined to find a real-world experience for her 2D Design and Art Appreciation students.

A Brooklyn exhibit provided the perfect medium.

Starr’s students contributed to a large-scale, recently-opened virtual exhibit through Wayfarers Gallery called RANSOM 2 -- an Instagram-specific collaborative. RANSOM 2 features the work of almost 400 artists working from a wide range of skill levels, and hailing from an equally wide range of geographical locations.

Each participating artist was assigned one word from a poem reflecting hope and transformation. According to the RANSOM 2 exhibit description, “…once the committed number of participants was established at 417, … a poem with 417 words was composed of three-word phrases so that it could be read fluidly as a series of scrollable passages on the Instagram feed. The captions that accompany the images offer a specific description of each artist’s process, and a general description of their lives during Covid––homeschooling, protesting, gardening, mourning. The captions function like pointillist dots culminating in yet another image—a collaborative portrait of this impossible and historical moment.”

Wayfarers hosted a virtual opening reception on October 9th that the artists were invited to attend and included a reading of the poem and a live stream of their work by writer A.W. Strouse.

“Many students and their families were excited to attend via Zoom and see their incredible designs alongside their peers and other artists,” Starr said and thanked gallery director George Ferrandi for providing her students with this experience.

“This is a great example of our students thriving and adapting to an online format, and more than that, bringing the community they created at Suffolk to the New York art world,” Starr said.

To view the exhibit follow @ransom2wayfarer on Instagram.

Student Artists:

2D Design (Fall 2020)

Miguel Almoar

Wilmer Alvarado

Luka Benidze

Hilary Brissee

Joseph Christine

Muhammed Colak

Kamala Covert

Deleena Dilan

Connor Edmonson