San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
Drive-thru art gallery
Creative exhibition showcases artists’ works at Mesa College in a mobile, COVID-SAFE display
‘We’ve already had about 50 people come,” Alessandra Moctezuma exclaims through her mask in the Mesa College parking lot. “It’s been a great turnout so far.”
It’s still relatively early in the afternoon, but cars are already lined up to see “Mesa Drive-in,” a drive-thru art exhibition held at Mesa College and curated by Moctezuma and her students in the Museum Studies and Gallery Management program.
The exhibition, where patrons stay in their car and drive past pieces of art affixed to the chain-link fence, was born out of necessity but is impressive in its ingenuity. It features printed banners and original works from over two dozen local artists, some of whom have been displayed in the campus’s eponymous art space where Moctezuma serves as gallery director.
“When the students were curating the exhibition and making decisions on what was going to go in the exhibit, I told them we need works that stand up against this busy, green background,” says Moctezuma, who teaches museum studies and art history courses at Mesa. “So they put a lot of work into finding works that were vibrant, high-contrast and had an interesting message. Something that could easily be seen from a distance.”
Like many college professors working in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, Moctezuma has had to rework her curriculum to virtual learning. In the case of Moctezuma, her museum studies class taught students things such as lighting and hanging, skills not easily translated outside of the gallery setting.
“The only way to get those practical skills is through working in that gallery,” Moctezuma told the Uniontribune back in August.
Even then, however, Moctezuma had conceived of a way in which students could still get some handson experience in staging an art exhibition via an outside experience where safety and social distancing were manageable. Moctezuma, who has a background in public art and printing art on banners, had noticed that Mesa College had already allowed for a drive-thru graduation ceremony to take place in July and, given the campus was already ostensibly empty of cars and traffic, pitched the idea of a drive-thru art exhibition to school administrators. After some parameters were put in place, “Mesa Drive-in” was approved and will be up on weekdays, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., through Dec. 9.
“I told them that I think we could do this safely and have something really fun and engaging for the community,” says Moctezuma, who, along with program assistant Jenny Armer, assisted students in the curatorial processes. “They were excited about it, and now they’re all super thrilled that we’re doing it.”
Still, Moctezuma’s curriculum is such that students are responsible for nearly every aspect of the curatorial process — from the design and layout to promotion and even printing out the art and show programs. While it’s not the same experience they would have received in a gallery setting, Moctezuma says the experience is wholly unique and could serve them in a POST-COVID arts world.
“The expectations were still very high for the exhibition to be successful. It’s a very unique challenge, and the students just took up the challenge,” says Moctezuma, adding that many of the students had fewer distractions this semester. “They were very engaged, and even though it was via Zoom and email, this group of 25 students has been the most engaged than in the last 20 years I’ve been teaching the class.”
Some of the art itself directly addresses contemporary issues that many of the students may be dealing with. Pieces such as Michael Chavez’s “No Justice No Peace” and Scott Gengelbach’s “Shot in the Back” explore issues of police violence, while Sora Gallagher’s “Touch” and Janice Grinsell’s “Kiss of Death” address trauma and sexual assault. Some of the pieces, such as painter Sarah Frey’s “Solitude” and a series of flags from fiber artist Michelle Montjoy (“Sneeze”), directly address the pandemic.
“It just sort of ended up that way,” Moctezuma says when asked if they had set out to display thematic works. “We’ve had themes in the gallery in the past, but I think we just wanted to leave it as open as possible — to take the pulse of what is in the artists’ minds right now. And what happened is that themes and topics started to emerge.”
The result is an interdisciplinary, multimedium experience that, while dissimilar to standard art exhibitions, does offer a unique viewing experience. For one, viewers can take their time driving through and looking at the art, whereas gallery shows can sometimes feel crowded and noisy, especially during the opening receptions. The printed catalog that patrons receive at the entrance also offers a QR code that links to a Youtube page with a narrated audio tour of the exhibition.
“People could bring snacks if they want,” Moctezuma jokes.
The experience also offers viewers a level of comfortableness to have a dialogue, be it with themselves or with someone else in the car, about the themes explored in the works. Discussing issues of politics, police brutality and sexual trauma can feel intimidating within a social setting, but less so in the confines of one’s own personal space (in this case, an automobile).
“It worked out really well,” Moctezuma says. “We planned every step, and I think there’s an eagerness for people to feel like they’re part of something again, with community and others.”