Reflections on Extraordinary Resilience We have all experienced a year that will be forever etched in our memories and have consequences into the future. Our ambition was that our 90th-anniversary year, highlighted by a self-produced exhibition drawn from our permanent collection entitled extra/ordinary: The American Swedish Institute. At Play, would, in fact, be extraordinary — and memorable. It certainly was. Just weeks after the exhibit opened, we joined other local and worldwide institutions in closing our doors to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic — not knowing how long the closure would be, and never thinking it would last eight months, as it did. Nor did we imagine what would happen next, with the murder of George Floyd just two miles away and the resulting civic unrest, protests and riots that claimed lives and property and brought new light to societal inequities. During this past year (these words are written in May 2021), we experienced quarantine, Zoom fatigue, separation, loss and grief. The silence on a campus once bustling with activity and filled with aromas, chatter and music, was sobering.
mind: resilience. For this past year truly was a test of resilience —of spirit, of health, of resources, of community and of relationships — as we faced great unknowns and unpredictability.
As we were confronted with all these challenges, another word came to
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The American Swedish Institute
Live demonstration in the Stuga
