When the COVID-19 pandemic forced most of the American River College faculty and students to shift to remote learning, the college’s art department responded by moving its art exhibits online. 

Patricia Wood, an ARC art instructor and director of the Kaneko Gallery, says it was the best solution.

All art department classes also moved online, she added.

“We all continued by shifting our classes to an online format, but some classes that are impossible to teach online had to be postponed until we could be back on ground,” Wood said.

This semester all of the department gallery exhibitions have been online. The exhibitions have included a wide range of works that belong to different schools and methods. For example, there are works in clay and plaster, oil paint and shellac, charcoal, oil and infrared film photography, and sculpture. The link to the art faculty exhibition can be found here.

Wood says the word, “Kaneko,” comes from an ARC former art professor’s name.

“Kaneko is the last name of former ARC ceramics professor James Kaneko,” Wood said. “He was the one who established the gallery and was the gallery’s first director.” 

Wood says she is somewhat optimistic about finding an end to the COVID 19 pandemic and that she doesn’t expect too many difficulties when returning to work in person.

 Wood says still, she also thinks the art department management should limit the number of visitors in the gallery to one person at a time and require masks and proof of vaccination.