Looking Beyond the Pandemic: An Online Collaboration with Allan Hancock College
Juried Online Exhibition: August 24, 2020 - February 7, 2021
Laurie Pemberton, Gold Banker, First Place Award, Courtesy the Artist.
Sean Kellythorne, Jasper North, Second Place Award, Courtesy the Artist.
Leo Dewinter, Balloon Over Maasai Mara, Third Place Award, Courtesy the Artist.
The Wildling Museum is delighted to collaborate with Allan Hancock College this summer featuring highlights from adult education instructor Michael Messina’s photography class. The students’ photography was first intended to be a Barbara Goodall Education Center exhibition, but with the intrusion of Covid-19, it has now evolved into an online Wildling exhibition.
Over the course of the spring semester, Messina’s class persevered online, adapting to Zoom and learning new skills and methods as they completed their course while navigating the pandemic, culminating in this virtual exhibition documenting various scenes of nature and wildlife captured as close as the students’ own backyards, as far as Africa, and as deep as beneath the ocean’s surface.
Grateful thanks to George Rose, professional photographer and Wildling Museum vice president for his time in selecting the award winners.
Participating Allan Hancock Students:
Eileen Armijo, Kathleen Curtis, Leo Dewinter, Peggy Dewinter, Janet Ford, Sean Kellythorne, Hoan Kessler, Laurie Pemberton, Terii Richard, Sheryl Rosness, Mary Ann Veroski, Ron Walsh, Kathleen Yingst, and Chris Young.
Looking Beyond the Pandemic | Digital Gallery
Click To View Artist And Full Image
Looking Beyond the Pandemic | Some Words from Instructor Michael V. Messina
Mary Ann Veroski, Hummingbird Sage, Honorable Mention, Courtesy the Artist.
As an instructor of photography through Allan Hancock’s Community Education for the past five years, I have had the honor to meet and befriend a group of talented “older adult” students ranging in age from late 50s to mid-90s. Different from teaching mainstream younger students, as I did for many years a credit class community college teacher, these older adult students bring to the class a whole different list of attributes and life experiences -- thus presenting a whole different perspective of life as seen through the lens of the camera. Over these past five years as I taught photography skills to older adult learners, I have learned how much they look forward to class each week and how important it is for them to connect as a community of lifelong learners. It was the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic that their community of learning was put on hold and their learning opportunities suddenly ended for the time being as Allan Hancock College had no choice but to cancel most all upcoming Community Education classes in the effort to flatten the curve of this terrible virus. My students felt both displaced and disappointed having lost this portal through the college of connecting and learning each week. I knew in my heart from the moment that my class was canceled that I could not abandon these wonderful people and must somehow step up to the plate and do what I could to make our “lock-down” a better place to be. Enter the online conference program, Zoom.
Laurie Pemberton, Hide and Seek, Honorable Mention, Courtesy the Artist.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, I could not have even told you what Zoom was, let alone even thinking of using it as a means to teach an online photography course to older adult learners (many who struggle with computers and the whole electronic age thing). Thankfully for me, one of my regular students, Dr. Kathleen Curtis, a retired education administrator, was well-versed in its use and was willing to teach me the basics of hosting a Zoom class. With Kathleen’s tutoring and more than a few YouTube videos watched (and re-watched) on the subject, our photography class was resurrected from the ashes in the form of providing a free private class using Zoom, introducing a whole new way of learning photography via the virtual classroom to many in the class. Our online Zoom photography class has become a testament of the human spirit to adapt and never give up, and that age is no barrier to learning new skills through new methods. The icing on the cake has been the kind offer of the Wilding Museum of Art and Nature and to provide a virtual exhibit of the students’ photography work that document various scenes of nature and wildlife that has been captured as close as their backyard, as far as Africa, and as deep as beneath the ocean’s surface. The students gave the exhibit a name: Looking Beyond the Pandemic. I would say that the title says it all.
- MICHAEL V. MESSINA, Photography Instructor
Michael V. Messina is a Santa Ynez Valley native and fine art portrait photographer and photography educator based out of Atascadero, CA. His work has been exhibited in the United States as well as in Ireland and England. He has studied photography with the San Francisco Academy of Art University where he developed a painterly and artistic style of photography that captures a range of creative themes and concepts inspired by the Renaissance, Baroque, and Pre-Raphaelite masters.