Every year, Spotlight celebrates the amazing achievements of student artists inspired by a work in the Museum’s collection. When schools closed this spring, the culmination of the 2020 Spotlight on Sue Fuller’s String Composition #W-253 seemed unlikely. Physically separated from their teachers, art supplies, and works-in-progress, students could have given up. Instead, they kept making art. The overwhelming response from students and teachers was that the Spotlight Celebration should still happen, even at a distance.
Many students found that making art helped express the feelings of anxiety or stress during the stay-at-home order. Others said that the online celebration gave them something to look forward to when so many of their end-of-year events were canceled. After a virtual celebration in May with over 17 schools participating, this fall the McNay exhibits works made at home and at school by these admirable students who like artists before them made beautiful things with what they had available.
Top Image: Sue Fuller, String Composition #W-253, 1984. Mahogany, brass, and cord. Collection of the McNay Art Museum, Gift of Robert L. B. Tobin and the Friends of the McNay. ©️ Estate of Sue Fuller and The Susan Teller Gallery, New York, NY
