Thursday, May 21, 2020

May 16th Urban Sketchers Administrators Zoom Meeting

Administrators from urban sketching (USk) chapters around the world met on ZOOM (May 16th) to talk about “What now?”

There has been a lot of worry and concern about a lot of things in our USk community. With so many cities in lockdown, how can we keep our groups together and active?
 
Screenshot of one of two pages of USk administrators on the ZOOM call


After welcomes and introductions, Urban Sketchers President Richard Alomar spoke briefly and urged everyone to “Keep sketching!”

 Regions then reported and shared some “Best Practices”. The three key takeaways for me were:

  1. MOST chapters cancelled their sketching events and workshops well ahead of the government-imposed self-isolation/quarantine/lockdowns. COVID-19 impacted sketching chapters at various times based on their regions.
  2. Each chapter struggled to find ways to connect and continue sketching “together”. Many chapters issued challenges or sent prompts. The Manifesto requirement to “sketch on location” which is at the core of our urban sketching movement, had to be relaxed. Many urban sketchers actually sketched more, while the ones who could not or did not sketch found great pleasure in seeing others peoples sketches posted online!  
  3. We CANNOT let our guards down. COVID-19 is still out there and we MUST continue to protect ourselves and protect others. As a cautionary tale, Charlie Lee of South Korea spoke of how they were making plans to sketch with each other again (South Korea has an enviable record of handling the outbreak) and suddenly they have been struck again with a serious second wave!!

History shows that we MUST continue to practice measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19
Thanks to the following folks who organized and enabled this ZOOM meeting. There is another one planned for May 23rd
 Some great ideas for USk activities that I heard:
Others reporting were Kay from Portland urban sketchers; Manupriam Seth from the Dubai urban sketchers, Bettina Wong from the Austria urban sketchers 
Ideas we might borrow for Ottawa urban sketchers
  • Greg Bryla from the Orlando urban sketchers reported that people were using public spaces more, especially on the water to maintain physical distancing.
  • The Cincinnati urban sketchers group partnered with a local museum to do weekly virtual tours!

Urban sketchers have been enjoying "USk Talks" during the COVID-19 crisis.

http://www.urbansketchers.org/p/usk-talks.html
From the website:
"Social distancing doesn’t mean we can’t still connect and learn from each other. In an effort to bring us together USk is kickstarting a new series called USk Talks. Every Sunday we will bring new guests to talk about what inspires them in this moment and to share their sketches, favorite tools and to answer your questions live!
If you have a suggestion of a topic to discuss on USk talks, a question or would like to share an inspiring story with the rest of the community please contact us at education@urbansketchers.org"

Previously on USK Talks

Ep. 1 "Sketching during a Pandemic" April 5, 2020
Ep. 2 "The Hong Kong connection" April 12, 2020
Ep. 3 "Stuck at Home! The Beauty in the Everyday" April 19, 2020
Ep. 4 "Couch Travelling around the World" April 26, 2020
Ep. 5 "Storytelling in Isolation" May 3, 2020
Ep. 6 "Urban Sketchers from Other Eras" May 10, 2020
Ep. 7 "Learn Something New Every Day" May 17, 2020


Here are some Instructor Challenges for you to try at home:





 
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