In 2020, as cultural institutions shut their doors and the collective appreciation for art slowly dried up with restrictions imposed on public gatherings, people sought comfort in solitary creative pursuits. One of the important and continuing conversations of the year on social media and elsewhere has centred around how art has come to our rescue in a moment of extreme distress. 

This year, in 2021, the dominant conversation veered towards the COVID-19 vaccine. All its attendant complications and shortages notwithstanding, the idea of art’s enduring importance seems to have been literalised in the way spaces traditionally associated with artistry, entertainment and popular culture have been transformed into mass vaccination centres.