Art and Design Holds #ArcadiaCreates Social Media Campaign
By Caitlin Joyce ’20
Throughout June and July, the Department of Art and Design held the #ArcadiaCreates campaign on Instagram, a series of art prompts posted over the course of five weeks. Ideas for the weekly prompts were created in collaboration with Carole Loeffler, associate professor and chair of Visual and Performing Arts, Christian “Patch” Patchell, adjunct professor of Visual and Performing Arts, and various students within the department. During the campaign, students, alumni, and faculty created works of art based on the prompts of “Give,” “Rise,” “Change,” “Home,” and “Bubble.”
“It’s all around the same idea of getting people to connect because they’re missing being in the spaces to be creative with each other,” said Loeffler on bringing the Art and Design community together through social media. “#ArcadiaCreates is a little bit about each person’s interpretation of the prompts, but it’s more about looking at what we did together.”
“Yeah or Hell Yeah” by Cline ’21
Graphic Design major Madison Cline ’21, who manages the Arcadia Art and Design Instagram page, created the graphics for each #ArcadiaCreates weekly prompt post. Additionally, Cline created two mixed-media paintings for the prompt “Bubble” utilizing gel pens, glitter, colored pencils, and watercolor paints.
“I actually used #ArcadiaCreates as a means to just get my hands back into all my traditional art mediums,” said Cline. “As a digital artist, it’s easy to get lost in ‘command, z’ and you forget to appreciate the care that comes with traditional art making. I sat down without a plan and went until it felt complete to me.”
Ceramics and Art Therapy major Johanna Schrecengost ’20 found that #ArcadiaCreates helped her find her artistic motivation again during the pandemic.
“During the past few months, I have had very little motivation to create and keep up with my art making. When the art department announced this campaign, I was excited to join in because I knew it would motivate me to make art at least once a week,” said Schrecengost. “The ‘Home’ prompt inspired me the most, because there are so many different ways that it can be felt and interpreted. I think a home is anywhere you can truly be yourself -and be with a lot of plants if you’re like me.”
“Home” submission by Schrecengost ’20
Patchell hopes to continue #ArcadiaCreates through the upcoming school year as a platform for students to keep engaged with one another during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The type of creative students Arcadia has, they may not like the situation they were presented with, but they came up with creative solutions,” said Patchell. “We don’t want #ArcadiaCreates to feel like another assignment. Every little bit counts.”
