Cornell Creatives Studio Showcase: Fighting the Pandemic and Hard Times with Creativity

By Isabela Perez

The pandemic that has consumed our lives these past couple of years has trapped most of us in our rooms, constraining our opportunities to be with loved ones and simply live our lives, and in turn it has trapped our creativity in those same four walls. There has been a world going on outside of our bedrooms and our houses, but a world that we could only see through screens that fostered the never ending negativity that resulted from these “unprecedented times”. So, what did people do? What did we do, the creatives? Did we sit in our beds, lose our motivation, and give up? Honestly, many of us did, and I’m sure some of us are still in that state, but the thing about creative minds is that even in a space with four walls seemingly trapping us, our creativity somehow takes what it sees, or what it wants to see, and runs with it, never being able to be completely repressed. And if you were lucky enough to come to Cornell Creative’s Creator Studio Showcase last week, you would have realized exactly that. 

Most years, Cornell Creatives offers not only a platform for people and their work to be represented, seen, and recognised, but it also gives creators a chance for their passions to be fostered and mentored throughout the year by other people with the same passions in the Creator Studio. After a year of hard work, their results would be presented to the community's creative eyes at the end of year Creator Studio Showcase. Unfortunately, this part of the club was unable to go on this academic school year, but even without mentors and as much support that is usually offered, we did what we are unable to stop doing: we created. Cornell Creatives, even without a year long Creators Studio, still put on an end of year showcase to give anyone and everyone an opportunity to volunteer to present work from the past semester, from the years of quarantine, and their creative works that are still in progress. These individuals presented everything from original songs, to photography, to their entrepreneurships stemming from their passions. Here is a sneak peak into the Creator Showcase. 

The Creators 

The President and Vice President of the on campus podcast State of the Pod showed up to the event to promote their work, get more followers, and simply to join in on the fun activities. They explained the purpose and theme of their podcast that speaks on topics of science and its relationship to society today, while also recently branching out to other topics as well, such as the sneaker industry.

The newest podcasts they promoted covered topics such as deja vu, pheromones, effects of working from home, and even the impending doom of Tiktok. The hook of many of these podcasts is that, aside from piquing almost anyone’s interest, they can relate to a vast majority of society. The State of the Pod leaders urged us to check them out through stickers, posters, and the promotion of their website at Stateofthepod.com. 

Clara Lee, a freshman in the College of Engineering, walked us through how in the wake of the confinement of the COVID-19 pandemic, she turned to creating art in the form of drawings, and then turned this into a business by making her drawings into stickers. She even has her own website and Instagram, @bucketofstickers, where many of the sticker options are shown as sold out. She takes her growing experience in digital art, fine art, as well as inspiration from Studio Ghibli, a Japanese animation film studio, in order to make her little masterpieces come to life and give shoppers the opportunity to do anything they want with these adorable stickers. 

Other creators such as Kristan Nail and Stephon Qian showed off their incredible photography skills. Kristen showed the natural beauty she finds around Cornell while Stephon takes a classic black and white approach in order to give himself and others a way to experience the randomness of reality as he perceives it. Lillian Hweng-Geddes, a freshman with experience in Computer Science, showed off her filmmaking skills with a short comedy skit about the exhilarating experience of being a student in this area of study. 

These incredible creators were only some of the many talents presented at the Showcase. Others included original music by Bridget Lee and Eric Yen, architecture work by Nicole Tian as well as projects created last semester that weren’t given the chance to be shown to the public through the platform that Cornell Creatives usually offers. 

Throughout the night, the club offered free Krispy Kreme doughnuts, Boba drinks, and canvases with paint for attendees to get creative while learning about other creative projects. It was a truly creative event in every way that showed that even in moments where there seems like there is nowhere else for creators to turn, Katie Tracy and Thomas Lu, the co-founders of Cornell Creatives, have continued to do what they set out to do from the beginning: create a platform for creators to create, have a safe place with each other, and feel supported in whatever hobby they want to pursue. The entire Cornell Creatives team looks forward to seeing how the creators of Cornell will continue to dazzle us with their passion projects in the future.