Adaptive Practices: Six Artists Redefine Isolation and Distraction

Adaptive Practices: Six Artists Redefine Isolation and Distraction

Adaptive Practices was an interactive project developed at PPL in the spring of 2020 as the pandemic necessitated closing public spaces and prohibited public gatherings. In March, as we considered how PPL might re-imagine our programming to both reflect and work within the perimeters of this new reality, we talked with our cadre of  Creative Fellows: Laura Brown-Lavoie, Becci Davis, Kelly Eriksen, Keri King, Walker Mettling, and Micah Salkind, six artists and creators who had each worked on a long-term, original project within our Special Collections. We thought about how, as artists, their endeavors often encompassed venturing into the unknown, enduring “fallow” periods of reflection and synthesis in which no immediate “product” would result, and working in solitude when research or experimentation was necessary. So we asked them to share their work with us in a way that would allow us to see and maybe even experience how they navigate and negotiate these conditions of uncertainty and unfamiliarity, and the result was this project.

Providence Public Library