What Does The Future Hold for Ventura College’s New Media Gallery?

#VCSocial Contributor Jason Brock talks about his experience as a student worker in the gallery you’ve probably walked by a hundred times, and never took the chance to see. 

Let’s flashback to the start of the spring semester of 2019. It was a time before masks and wristbands and QR Code check-ins. It was a time when we weren’t hypersensitive to gathering inside. And in March of that semester, (unknowingly to me in the moment), it would be the last time that I would prepare for an opening reception at the best kept art secret on the VCCCD campus–The New Media Gallery (NMG). 

You’ve probably walked by it a hundred times and you might not have known that the NMG was the place to go to see new student and faculty art on campus.  It was built specifically for that purpose.  Now, in the fall semester of 2021, in our post pandemic reality, I look into the gallery windows, with my pandemic long hair and beard, and wonder-”What is the future of the New Media Gallery going to be?”

The New Media Gallery looks and feels a lot like me…unkempt but ready to start again.  

Yeah yeah, I know I might look like I’m related to Sasquatch, but back then I was clean cut and I was playing the role of gallery assistant in between my art classes. During that time I enjoyed working at the direction of Professor and NMG Gallery Director Jesse Groves and also with my school mates. I was also personally excited to be in a creative work environment once again.  Why exactly? Well, I have another story to tell about that. It’s tragic, but with a happy ending. 

Could this be the topic for my other blog, or a book?  I think so.   

But the short story for now is–I was discovering new opportunities and friendships in the New Media Gallery. Art was alive! I was stoked. Little did I know that we were all about to get blindsided by a global pandemic.

Now, eighteen months later, as we’re all venturing back on to campus, the New Media Gallery is a stark reminder of the impacts of a global emergency that changed the way we live, the way we interact, and the way we enjoy art. It’s an interesting and difficult time for arts and culture and though we’re still in recovery mode, I have a feeling the New Media Gallery is going to lead the way once again.

As I mentioned earlier, I went by to take a peek in the windows the other day. The art that we hung for that last show is still hanging, waiting to come back out of the shadows.  Coincidentally that show is called Shadows and Currents. The leaves and dust and debris have piled up in the entrance way. The New Media Gallery looks and feels a lot like me…unkempt but ready to start again.  

In closing, I don’t know what the future of the New Media Gallery is going to be. But I do know someone who does. Professor Jesse Groves. I’m hoping to interview him in the near future for a #vcsocial podcast. 

Quick update: I just spoke with Proffessor Groves! I have a lot of really great information to share with you in my next blog. Come back and find out what’s next. 

Thanks for reading!  -Jason

#VCSocial is where you’ll get all the most up to date and interactive happenings in the school’s art scene. Stay connected! Stay inspired!

Photos by Jason Brock 2021