After two years without a live exhibition of their work, students at George Washington University’s Corcoran School of the Arts & Design have kicked off an exhibit at the historic Flagg Building, the school’s longtime flagship and soon-to-be home for a new National Gallery of Art gallery.

NEXT, the massive, two-floor exhibition, is packed with photography, videos, paintings, and interactive installations that undergraduate and graduate students in multiple programs created while bouncing from virtual to in-person learning. It explores issues of identity, race, gender, and accessibility. Held every spring as an end-of-year thesis and capstone show, the in-person version took a two-year hiatus and went virtual with an online show in 2021.

The Corcoran’s residence in the storied Flagg Building has been part of a long saga — one that will continue this year as GW begins renovations to make room for the NGA to display works from the Corcoran collection there. [Disclosure: The author is an adjunct professor in GW’s School of Media and Public Affairs.]

The three-week NEXT show, which opened Thursday, takes up most of the historic 19th-century building that originally housed the Corcoran Gallery of Art and, in the basement, the Corcoran College of Art and Design. In 2014, a contentious court ruling paved the way for GW to take over and rename the college and for the National Gallery of Art to inherit much of the Corcoran’s $1 billion art collection.

The Flagg Building then underwent a $47.5 million restoration project from 2015 to 2018 that improved safety and accessibility, and renovated classrooms and galleries on each floor. Classrooms and studios remained in use throughout the renovations, which created a “messy” situation” — some students complained of health issues, though GW officials said at the time the building was safe, Washington City Paper reported in 2018.

Now, additional renovations will begin this summer at the 125-year-old building to make way for the National Gallery of Art, according to a Corcoran spokesperson. The NGA will house works from its Corcoran collection, as well as special exhibits of modern and contemporary art, on the second floor. The renovations are scheduled to last until 2023. “We are committed to minimizing impact on classes and exhibits,” the spokesperson said in an email.

The Flagg Building also hosts the Luther W. Brady Art Gallery on the first floor, which shows works from GW’s collection of over 3,800 paintings, photographs, prints, and sculpture.

NEXT opens today but will host a celebratory event on April 28 that will include live performances, food, and drinks; and the public is invited to view the exhibit during select hours through May 15.

“Frankly, it feels incredible,” says John Traub, Corcoran’s assistant professor of production management and technology. “The last time that we presented in-person work for NEXT was in 2019, which feels both yesterday and also a million years ago, right?”

Lauren Onkey, a former NPR Music director who became the Corcoran School’s director in July, says there is an intimacy reflected in the student’s work this year, derived from crafting their art in relative isolation during the pandemic.

“NEXT signifies the achievements of graduating students throughout their time at the Corcoran — the culmination of years’ worth of work, growth, and discovery,” Onkey said in a statement. “Behind each student’s work is a desire to contribute to the pressing issues of our larger community.”

With so much change over the past decade, it’s no wonder students like Kaitlin Santiago, a second-year interaction design master’s candidate, are so excited to be back in the building. She completed her first year of the program virtually, but decided to go big for this year’s exhibit, taking full advantage of the space in the Beaux-Arts-style building. Santiago’s “Gender in Bloom” installation explores gender nonconformity through a fashion show she styled and filmed on the second floor, where she then filled an entire room with photos and outfits from the show.

“I think that the project became all that it was because of the access to the resources, space, and students that were there [in Corcoran],” Santiago says. “It was really amazing to be able to be a part of the community in a really hands-on way by being back in person.”

Senior Nateé Himmons’ “Humanity” will feature live dance performances in front of a video projection on NEXT’s grand opening night. A business analytics and dance double major, Himmons used an algorithm to choreograph the dance. “It feels like we’re returning back to something that is new, but also has rootedness in a foundation of history behind it,” she says.

For Andrea Dietz, an assistant professor of exhibition design who worked with her students in that discipline to get their work ready for the show, it’s a first to be working with the building as a canvas. “I had never done a full NEXT myself. So this is actually my first install experience with GW, as well,” she said. “It was a brand new and exciting moment to get to actually do something in that incredible building and actually see all of our ideas realized.”