Polk Museum of Art Unveils “Hindsight 2020: Art of this Moment” Online Exhibition

Lakeland, FL (October 6, 2020) – After launching a call for Central Florida artists back in August, the Museum is excited to present the works selected for its “Hindsight 2020: Art of This Moment” online exhibition. 

The “Hindsight 2020” call for artists was initiated with the hopes of sharing and documenting art that represents a diverse spectrum of perspectives, ideas, and reflections upon the past eight months of our collective lives. The Museum was hopeful that, in reaching out across the region to artists of all ages and talents, it would be able to showcase how individual artists have engaged with and considered this novel moment in time. Submissions were encouraged to relate, but were not limited, to the COVID-19 pandemic, social justice, the Black Lives Matter movement, and experiences and feelings of isolation.

“2020 will go down as one of the most extraordinary periods in human history. As a global population, we all experienced a transformative shift in our daily lives and our senses of selves, not to mention our relationships with others,” said Dr. Alex Rich, Executive Director and Chief Curator. “With everything that has transpired this year, we felt the imperative to imagine a real-time exhibition that would engage our community and capture for perpetuity its artistic responses to this moment. Artists kept working and kept grappling with the realities they saw all around them throughout the trials of the past year, and the outpouring of submissions speaks to the strength of the arts in even the most trying of times.” 

232 artists submitted nearly 700 works to be considered for acceptance into the show. With media ranging from textile and assemblage to oil painting and photography, the Museum staff faced an exciting and weighty task to whittle that number to 85 works to be presented in the show. 

“I was thrilled that we received artwork that represented voices within the community and touched on many issues the world is experiencing during this time. Because we received submissions from every county we placed the call for artists to, this exhibition feels like a true representation of what the Central Florida community is feeling,” shared Diane Baires, Assistant to the Executive Director. “It was great to see individuals of all ages, ranging from 6 to 99, express their personal experience creatively.”

The result, the Museum believes, is a unique exhibition that enables us all to achieve a better appreciation for the transformations that 2020 has had on our world and on each of us individually. 

This exhibition is available online at https://polkmuseumofart.org/hindsight2020. For any additional questions or information, please contact Taylor Holycross at 863-688-7743 ext. 249 or tholycross@polkmuseumofart.org.