Artist Talk: Dear So & So: Now More Than Ever

About | Dear So & So is an ongoing project that celebrates artistic collaboration in an innovative way. As co-curators and artists, Mary Lewey and Helen Popinchalk invite a group of artists working in a variety of mediums to participate in an art experiment: choose a partner and work together in a call-and-response style over the course of one year. For example, one person begins a collection of new work and then turns it over to their art pen pal, trusting them to build upon it. Work is exchanged back and forth until finished. For this iteration of Dear So & So, Lewey and Popinchalk asked artists to consider the phrase “now more than ever.” As we continue to cope with the impacts of COVID-19 and the simultaneous national reckoning with racial justice, the phrase has been used… “well, now more than ever!” But what does it actually mean? Do we care that every business with our email address is carefully monitoring the situation? How does a blurb on social media translate into real change? What do humans really need now? How do we use our creativity to get by? What does it mean to collaborate during these trying times? Dear So & So: Now More Than Ever asks artists to ponder these questions, as well as their own, while creating new work together.