SHIFT: Skidmore Storytellers’ Institute Presents Online Exhibit, Live Weekly Artists Conversations

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Force into virtual reality due to the ongoing pandemic, MDOCS Stoytellers’ Institute presents an online exhibition featuring the 2020 MDOCS Storytellers’ Institute Fellows and live conversations with artists.

The current theme, titled SHIFT, shows how a small group of documentarians adapted and created despite and because of the global challenges of 2020 in first-ever virtual MDOCS Stoytellers’ Institute. 

The exhibit includes works of more than one dozen artists. Included are a Quarantine Self Portrait photo series by Gioncarlo Valentine, Kadijatou Diallo’s animated untold story of life under Guinean President Sékou Touré’s regime, and 25-minutes of footage comprised of videos taken over a one-year span by Keshawn Truesdale, that includes portions of protests and rallies in Saratoga Springs during recent months.

Founded in 2014, the annual Storytellers’ Institute sponsored by the John B. Moore Documentary Studies Collaborative (MDOCS) is a five-week residency hosted at Skidmore College. The institute brings together a handful of professional documentary practitioners, 8 to 10 Skidmore College students and some faculty/staff members to work on personal projects and engage with the year’s theme.

Instagram live conversations with artists will take place @mdocs.skidmore at 6 p.m. on the following dates: Oct. 1 – Courtney Surmanek and Steven T. Licardi; Oct. 8 – Kadijatou Diallo and Shana Kleiner; Oct. 15 – Shalon Buskirk, Haley Hnatuk, and Drew Swedberg; Oct. 22 – Cooperativa Cultural 19 de enero – Fernanda Espinosa and Raul Ayala. To view the online virtual presentation of SHIFT, go to: mdocs.skidmore.edu/storytellers/shift.