Roddy MacInnes

“Self-portrait: Distanced” by Roddy MacInnes is one of the artworks on display in the “Socially Distanced” exhibition at Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts.

The idea of distance has taken on a new meaning for a lot of people over the last year and a half as we’ve been encouraged to social distance from each other in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19.

And now, an exhibit at the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts' Center Space gallery explores the many facets of distancing, through the eyes of 17 artists from Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado.

The show takes both an artistic and scientific approach; it’s a collaboration between Scottsdale Arts Learning & Innovation and the Cooperation in the Apocalypse team at Arizona State University.

The show was originally supposed to be about cancer, but as Laura Hales and Pamela Winfrey explained, that changed once the pandemic hit and they realized COVID-19 was such a universal topic and something so relatable that it was important to see what artists were creating during this time.

Hales is curator of learning and innovation at Scottsdale Arts and curates Center Space gallery; Pamela Winfrey is scientific research curator for the Cooperation in the Apocalypse effort, as well as director of the arts programs for the Arizona Cancer Evolution Center at ASU.

The Show spoke with them about the idea to focus on social distancing, with all of the possibilities in an exhibit about COVID-19.

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