Unfold, the title and theme of this year’s ALC Festival presents creative works by students in the ALC program made in the first semester of in-person learning since March 2020. To unfold is to smooth surfaces, to disclose what is or has been hidden from view, to reveal secrets and potentials. Unfold celebrates the opening up and continuation of our lives as the pandemic starts to wane.

Some of the works in the festival reflect upon the changes undertaken in the last eighteen months and speculate on changes still to come.  Others address how Covid has altered our customs of interaction with each other and the effects these transformations have had on our family life and friendships. All the works on view remind us that new ways of knowing and being are always unfolding, achieved through reflection, introspection, personal interpretation, and, most importantly, social exchange. We see the world differently when together than apart.  Knowledge is revealed as it changes hands.