Wish You Were Here
Students from across disciplines as well as the greater San Jose Public are invited to attend a series of workshops to help translate their personal experiences of living/working in San Jose into visual form that can be adapted into a postcard format. The workshops will culminate in two design contests that run from Nov 1 - Dec 1 2020 and a second round March 1 - April 9th 2021. The contests will return 1 winning kiosk design (for postcard distribution and return) and 14 postcard designs that will be printed in runs of 500 each.
In the Fall 2021, the Thompson Gallery will feature an exhibition of ‘correspondence art’ mailed to the gallery or dropped off to the kiosk. A digital exhibition of submitted designs (hosted by San Jose Story Map) will go live at the same time.
Wish You Were Here grew out of a series of brainstorming sessions with the Natalie & James Thompson Gallery and faculty from Art & Design departments at San Jose State University about ways to meaningfully connect the themes from the San Jose Story Map with the visual arts while sheltering in place. Wish You Were Here serves as way to collect multidisciplinary contributions of visual & text based work focused on placemaking in San Jose with sub-themes of: Sheltering in Place, Sustainability, Cultural History, Generational Connectivity, Transformation
To ground the students exploration of alternative exhibition formats, a panel featuring the directors of 5 Bay Area Alternative Art Exhibition Platforms will discuss the ways they have responded to Social Distancing as well as lasting impacts this time might have on platforms for art viewership and production.
