Stand & Witness: Art in the Time of COVID-19

How To Navigate

We’ve arranged Stand & Witness as a guided tour. We recommend that you move through the exhibition according to the numbered tour stops or “hotspots.”
To start the guided tour, click (don’t hover over) the red hotspot located at the first stop. Once clicked, the embedded video and navigation will load. The navigation will indicate the stop, for instance, at the first stop, it will say “1 of 10.” There are forward and backward arrows to move to the next and previous stops.
To view the videos in fullscreen, click the left-facing arrow located in the bottom right of the embedded video player to reveal “Show controls” and then click the “Fullscreen” button.
If you lose your way, click the magnifying glass at upper left corner of the screen, then click on the hotspot where you left off or would like to go next. On a mobile device, you’ll need to click the upward-facing arrow next to “10 Items” to reveal hotspots.

Introduction

In many ways, artists are first responders—to repurpose a term often used in public health. Soon after COVID-19 shutdowns began in March 2020, artists took to their studios, desks, and Zoom to bear witness to the pandemic and the tragic experiences of morbity and mortality that upended millions of lives. Throughout the pandemic, artists continued to serve on the emotional frontlines of COVID-19 interpretation.

Unlike the 1918 influenza pandemic, which is often referred to as the “forgotten pandemic,” COVID-19 took place in an era of global connection and social media, allowing for new audiences and shared artistic production. While scientists worked to understand the novel SARS-CoV-2, many artists leaned into the disruption that COVID-19 caused, discovering innovative strategies to interpret the impact of the pandemic individually and collectively.  Artists across the globe investigated the heartbreak, poignancy, and isolation of the pandemic. Some turned to forms of humor. Novelists and poets wove narratives. When theaters were forced to close, performers found innovative ways to stage their productions and attracted new audiences on Zoom. Impelled by the pandemic, artists from around the world gathered online in August 2020, for the Edinburgh International Festival’s “Artists in the Age of Covid.” They examined new work and forms. They pondered the future of the arts, post-pandemic, and they asked, “what is the irreplaceable impact of the arts?” Stand & Witness: Art in the Time of Covid addresses that question.

Stand & Witness: Art in the Time of COVID-19 brings together an international group of artists, poets, authors, and performers to help us understand the individual and collective experiences of a pandemic that reshaped cultures and societies. 

The title Stand & Witness is excerpted from “From 'Trading Riffs to Slay Monsters',” a poem by Yusef Komunyakaa and Laren McClung published in Four Quartets: Poetry in the Pandemic, (North Adams: MA, Tupelo Press, 2020).

Sponsored by the David J. Sencer CDC Museum, Office of Communications and the CDC COVID-19 response. Additional support provided by the Consulate General of Canada to the U.S. Southeast. The Stand & Witness exhibition ran from June 17–October 25, 2024 at the CDC Museum in Atlanta.

About the Authors

Louise E. Shaw served as curator of the David J. Sencer CDC Museum from 2002-2023, where she developed history and art exhibitions relevant to the work of CDC and public health. Previously she led Nexus Contemporary Art Center (now Atlanta Contemporary Art Center) and served as assistant curator at the Atlanta Historical Society (now Atlanta History Center).

Heather E. Rodriguez (contractor, Chickasaw Nation Industries) is the assistant curator at the David J. Sencer CDC museum. During her time at the museum, she has spearheaded the COVID-19 Collection Project and helped curate several exhibitions. Her areas of interest are the intersections between public health, sex, race and ethnicity, and United States culture.

Steve Bransford is senior video producer at the Emory Center for Digital Scholarship.

Public Health in the US and Global South is a collection of interdisciplinary, multimedia publications examining the relationship between public health and specific geographies—both real and imagined—in and across the US and Global South. These essays raise questions about the origin, replication, and entrenchment of health disparities; the ways that race and gender shape and are shaped by health policy; and the inseparable connection between health justice and health advocacy.

Beginning in 2022, the series expands to include 1000-word blog posts, as well as longer commentaries, essays, articles and media productions that address the public health and political implications of the COVID-19 pandemic from multiple perspectives. The series editor for Public Health in the US and Global South is Mary E. Frederickson.

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