by Christopher Sinclair

As vaccination efforts across the region and across the country continue apace, some events and festivals are beginning to emerge from their Covid-induced slumber, while others will lie dormant for another season. The Yale Norfolk School of Art unfortunately falls into the latter category and has been canceled for this summer.

Although a proposal for this summer’s program was greenlighted last fall by relevant stakeholders, it was canceled in April, just four days after the class of 2021 had been admitted. The program was to be modified in scale, admitting only 16 rather than 26 students, who would have been housed exclusively on the Stoeckel Estate, not in the homes of Norfolk residents. The accepted students are not able to defer their acceptance to next summer, since the program is exclusively for undergraduates between their junior and senior academic years.

 Byron Kim and Lisa Sigal, directors and stewards of the Yale Norfolk School of Art program, say that they worked “very hard to put everything in place, including unique Covid safety protocols for students and staff.” Ultimately, the decision to cancel was made by Yale’s Covid Response Team (CRT). Regarding “Covid testing, resulting, tracing, and care management” practices, the official Yale CRT statement says, “The CRT was not confident that these practices could be extended effectively to a location remote from our campus.” Kim paraphrased the CRT’s official reasoning by saying that “even though they thought that our safety plan was well conceived, they didn’t think we could replicate all the measures they’ve used to keep students safe on Yale’s campus.”

Concerning potential programming for the summer in the absence of the students, Kim says, “We are determined to do something! But it’s bound to be very modest.” Kim and Sigal are hopeful that a lecture and performance series entitled “The Shape of Empathy,” now two years in the making, will get a run the summer of 2022. Kim says that, rather than attempting to make a go of it amid the current uncertainty, “it makes the most sense” to wait and “incorporate all the delays as part of our subject.” As a silver lining, Kim offered a reminder that the $2.75 million renovations of the Art Barn are nearly complete, with only the front courtyard area left to go, at a cost of roughly $200,000. Regarding the effort that made the renovations possible, Kim says, “The Norfolk community should be so proud about having accomplished this!”

In the wake of the art program’s cancellation, Kim and Sigal offer some words to young artists making work during these unprecedented times: “Persistence is much more important than talent, whatever talent means,” and that “art thrives under pressure.” Given the immense pressures of this past year and the persistence they have demanded, one can only imagine the important work that students will make and explore next year and well into the future, when the Yale Norfolk School of Art program returns to its place as a beloved and beautiful thread in the quilt of a Norfolk summer.