#MyPandemicStory: youth create portraits of a pandemic to be showcased by ROM on Oct 23

#RoyalOntarioMuseum; #MyPandemicStory; #ChildrenArtwork; #OpenFreeToPublic; #COVID19GlobalHealthCrisis

Toronto/Canadian-Media: Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) would launch an original exhibition, #MyPandemicStory: Youth Create Portraits of a Pandemic this fall on Oct 23 with a powerful presentation of children’s artwork to shine a light on youth experiences of the COVID-19 global health crisis and its impact on a generation.

ROM. Image credit: Website

This is one of the first crowd-sourced pandemic-related exhibitions worldwide to focus on children’s points of view and is open free to the public with no general admission required to the Museum.

This exhibition would be launched with a call for Ontario youth aged 4–18 to reflect on and express their experiences of the pandemic through a work of art in any medium and provided an opportunity for young people to express themselves, join a community of other young artists, and contribute to a platform for understanding how this generation has been affected by the pandemic.

Image: Ambiguity. Image credit: ROM

The callout for #MyPandemicStory art was responded by over 2,300 artworks created independently, with families, or through school projects from across the province, from as far north as Thunder Bay, east to Lancaster, and south to Windsor.

A new exhibition space created inside the doors of ROM’s Michael Lee-Chin Crystal (Bloor Street) entrance features sixty (60) of the artworks and together form a stirring portrait of the complex journeys young people have experienced during this pandemic from moments of sorrow, isolation to self-discovery, hope and delight and emphasizes the voices of youth through large-format artist quotes that highlight themes such as struggle, perseverance, and connection.

Visitors are provided seating spaces with support material o rest and reflect while a response station invites visitors to share their own responses to the pandemic and contribute to an ongoing conversation in the exhibition.