26th Annual New Jersey Book Arts Symposium
Virtual Gallery Powered by Rutgers GRID
Project Date: Fall 2020
Project Summary
How does the oldest running book symposium in the country innovate and adapt in the age of COVID-19 and it’s social distancing regulations? Rutgers GRID worked closely with NJBAS to make sure the challenges of gathering during the pandemic were overcome by creating the virtual art gallery.
Thoughtful design decisions were made to highlight each of the 30+ artists, and the 100+ artworks in the exhibit appropriately. The layout of the exhibit gave each artist their own breadth of space, while inviting visitors to explore and discover each one.
The Rutgers GRID Virtual Worlds technology allows the community of artists, students, faculty and guests to comingle in the 3D environment; while using 3D emojis, text, and voice chat to communicate.
The multimedia presentation of photos, videos, and 3D rendered artworks allows visitors to experience each of the complex art objects in unique ways.
The virtual world feels like an art gallery through the use of environmental design and storytelling – from the treatment of the gallery wall text, to the guestbook on the wine and cheese table. You can even make the exciting decision of how to customize your avatar for the big night at the reception!
My involvement for this project was as the project manager and producer. As a project manager, I gathered all the requirements together in scoping documents and worked with the designers to influence the layout and possibilities of the project within the constraints of their tight deadline. Once the project started off properly, I stepped aside and worked as support. Making sure our developers were getting all the content on time, and assisting in any way I could. This included gathering the pictures for the art works, editing them into workable objects for import, creating vision boards for the layout, and ensuring that all timelines were followed through. I also maintained communications between all stakeholders and members of the team.
One challenge we faced as a team was directing the final project to a scope that would be feasible given their short timeline. We are a small team and often have a few projects ongoing at the same time. Being strict with the clients on what would be possible was challenging in that we always strive to put our best work out there. Anyone directing projects can understand that this means…scope can get out of hand. Working with 30+ artists for over 100 artworks meant being extremely on top of content deadlines as well as having hard discussions of cutting out certain content. It’s part of the job, and it doesn’t get any easier since we always like to go above and beyond with our work.
