A conversation with the creators of @mta_jennings_art
Some Mt. A students may be familiar with the Instagram @mta_jennings_art, a page started in 2019. I remember seeing this account in my first year and have been a follower ever since.
The page primarily posts submitted photo art taken at Jennings Dining Hall. As a lover of modern art, I decided to write to the creators and ask them about their inspiration and experience with the page. The creators of the page wished to remain anonymous, but were comfortable sharing that they are both Bachelor of Music students who intend to graduate in May 2023.
The first post on the page is titled “Variations on a Tart Tin” (2019), a piece that was part of the inspiration behind creating the page. “This page was inspired by a series of jokes we made while at dining hall during our first year at Mount Allison. Specifically, it began at dinner in December 2019 when one of us started folding up a tin from some sort of tart-like dessert. We started making jokes about how it ‘obviously was a fantastic work of art,’” said the creators.
“The response from the community, especially this year, has been quite unexpected.” Originally the page was made up of pieces made by the creators or their friends. They did not have many expectations for the page once they moved out of residence. “The last work we were able to make ourselves was in April 2021, and after that we just had to hope new people would pick up the torch. It’s been so exciting each September to see new people discover it and send in their submissions, and we love the little community we’ve created,” they explained.
In terms of curation, the creators said, “We just post whatever. […] Who are we to determine what is art and what is not? As long as the person who submitted it considers it to be art, we post it.” They do have a very strict no-hate policy, but have not had to enforce it; “Thankfully our little community is wonderful, so we’ve never had that problem.”
Now that the creators are graduating, the future of the page is left uncertain. “Now that we have expanded in numbers, we’re hoping to find a loyal contributor who is willing to take up the mantle. However, how exactly we plan to do that is a bit up in the air.”
Both creators have appreciated what the page has done for them. “We’re both creative people in an incredibly creative program, and Jennings Art allowed us to mess around and be creative in a different, silly way,” they said. For the future, “the most important thing to us is that whoever we choose will continue to foster the community we’ve created and will create more lovely works of art for all to appreciate.”
