KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) — The Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo has announced that the May event will be taking place virtually due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
This comes after last month, when the April event was held online for the first time via Facebook. It is currently scheduled on the Arts Council Facebook Page on Friday, May 1 from 5 to 7 p.m., an hour less than the last event.
“We’re really trying to reach more people with engaging in Art Hop and making sure that artists also get exposure,” Arts Council Program Director Bianca Washington Ciungan said. “We’ve been trying to really find ways to hear from the public, we have a desire to see how they are engaging with the artwork. Social media has afforded us that opportunity.”
With this in mind, the Arts Council is encouraging public interaction through the virtual event with the artists participating.
“What we’re asking the public to do is to not only come onto our page and see what’s there, but we’re really inviting them to comment and engage with the artists, ask them questions,” Ciungan said. “We’ll be posting a couple different questions on our page throughout the night that are fun and engaging, asking people how they started their creativity, things they like to do artistically even at this time, and it’s gonna give us a chance to really hear how people are encountering Art Hop.”
For this event, the Council is asking artists to submit their work ahead of the event. However, work can still be posted directly on the page during the event using the hashtags #Virtual and #ArtHop.
Just like the last virtual ArtHop event, all mediums will be accepted.
“We want to see paintings, we want to see dance, we want to see music, we want to see theater pieces, we want to see everything that makes Kalamazoo great in one place for three hours on Friday night,” Arts Council representative Kristen Chesak said last month. “We’re inviting everyone else to come and experience it, to see what is happening in the arts community.”
The submission page can be found on the Council website at this link. The Facebook page can be found at this link.
