Unprecedented Covid Exhibition

The Unprecedented Covid Exhibition is an exhibition of collective work created since March 2020 during and in response to the Coronavirus pandemic.

The OVADA ‘Covid Quilt Project’ will be at the centre of this exhibition as the inspiration that drew the whole exhibition together. We will also be exhibiting a digital quilt created by Art Refuge that has been created by groups of people who have been displaced.

Alongside the two quilts the exhibition features work by artists carefully selected by Curator Sarah Mossop and Programme Coordinator Katie Taylor from an open call looking at how artists have continued to work during the pandemic.The Unprecedented Covid Exhibition will be part of Oxford Artweeks and will be a celebration of the gradual reopening of art spaces, showcasing the resilience of all artists and arts organisations.

Youtube walk through

Virtual exhibition

Art Refuge Digital Quilt

A digital public art project created by Art Refuge on the theme of daily rituals that have helped people cope during the Covid19 pandemic. This project is ongoing with an open invitation to take part. It has received almost 1500 images to date, with daily contributions from across the UK and 30 countries worldwide.

From the original Invitation on Instagram @coronaquilt, and on the project website: www.coronaquilt.org : March 2020

“When people across the world are being asked to isolate themselves from one another within communities, Art Refuge is thinking of creative ways to bring us together. Building on our work with refugees, we invite you to sit around a virtual community table and help create a patchwork tablecloth. Whether at home alone or on lock down with family, struggling in a camp or displaced on an island, whatever your age, and wherever you come from, we welcome you to take up this invitation to create a piece of the Coronaquilt on the theme of RITUALS OF THE EVERYDAY.”

Art Refuge uses art and art therapy to support the mental health and well-being of people displaced due to conflict, persecution and poverty, both in the UK and internationally. The map tablecloth was a valuable tool used by the team of art therapists and artists in a refugee day centre, a safe house and with a mobile clinic in Calais, northern France until the start of lockdown in March 2020. www.artrefuge.org.uk

Curators: Bobby Lloyd & Miriam Usiskin, Art Refuge

Designer: Genevieve Closuit

Film editor: Lily Halliday