Art Department is making the best of the new format

Last updated on December 3, 2020

By Breanna Hiett

Volunteer State Community College’s Art Department hosts events, interactive activities with the students in their classes. This year, things are different as they continue to find ways to have classes and host events during the pandemic. 

In order to keep students and faculty safe and healthy, Vol State is taking precautions in order to reach that goal. The college has decided to stop offering some classes and convert the remaining classes to online or hybrid to decrease the level of exposure and spread of disease from person to person. 

The fact that the classes have been changed to hybrid or online has had an impact on the Art Department, especially the studio classes. The Art Department teaches mostly in a hands-on format, which in turn can make things harder to teach through an online format. 

Although in the past, the Art Department has taught certain sections of the Introduction to Art classes online for non-Art majors, the new format is still fairly new to them.

“Our faculty worked very hard to make many of these classes as good as possible in these new formats, and I think the courses we are offering now are as good as they can be, but there are some courses that require the use of facilities, materials and hands-on learning to the extent that they simply can’t be offered again until we can return to the physical classroom,” said Nathaniel Smith, Department Chair of the Art Department. 

The way that things are being done in the art department this semester during the pandemic is having an impact on some of the students, both in negative and positive ways.

“It isn’t the work itself, it’s just that I’m not all that good at deadlines and because I’m not in a class, I’ll either wait to the last minute or miss them. Whenever I’m at home, I want to relax and it’s harder to do work because it’s my living space while whenever I’m on campus, I’m way more focused and can get way more done too”, said Aniya Patton, who is a current Sophomore art student. 

Next semester, Art Department classes will continue to only be offered through the online and the hybrid format. The classes that have been put on hold will continue to be, as things are having to remain the way that they are during the pandemic, said Smyth.