Over the last week, society has faced unprecedented territory with the increasing spread of Covid-19. As communities quarantine themselves and take precautions against greater spread, arts and cultural organizations are joining in the effort by closing their doors. Amidst all of this, arts managers are coming up with creative solutions to offer their content and services to the public Now, more than ever, the arts must rely on technology to deliver their content.
Below is a sampling qua starter list of virtual responses to Covid19 to date (March 17, 2020). If you know of others, please share them with us by commenting below or tagging us in social media:
Streaming
Performing arts are offering streaming services to their content. The Met’s Live in HD is offering free streaming every evening at 7:30 (available for 20 hours). Orchestras are also following suit, and the Detroit Symphony is making its Replay Archive free to all visitors for a month.
Figure 1: The Met’s website, featuring the Nightly Opera Stream series. Source: Screenshot by Author.
Live Performances
In the wake of cancellations, many artists are choosing to put on live performances in lieu of their scheduled show. Telly Leung--who recently starred in Aladdin on Broadway--will give a live performance “in order to keep performers working and to continue the art form.” Audience members can tune in to the performance for only $5. Some cities are even creating an entire line-up of performances, like the Live at 25 Pandemic Series in Pittsburgh.
Virtual Tours
Many museums are offering virtual tours of their spaces. Hyperallergic offers 2500 museums offering virtual tours, including the Guggenheim Museum, New York and the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam. Some are hosted by the individual museums while others are provided via Google Arts and Culture.
Museums are not the only cultural institutions offering virtual experiences--National Parks and Zoos are offering tours and online experiences. The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden is offering “Home Safari Facebook Live sessions” every day that focus on one animal and offer an activity to do at home.
Figure 2: A virtual view of the Guggenheim Museum in New York, on Google Arts & Culture. Source: Screenshot by Author.
Artist Relief Funds
Although many institutions are responding to Covid19 by offering virtual experiences, many artists are losing work and income during this difficult time. Various cities across the country have started Artist Relief Funds to support artists while they are limited in work. An example of this in Pittsburgh is the Emergency Fund for Artists by the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council. TDF offers 5 direct ways to support theatres and artists, from donating the cost of your tickets to shows at theatres forced to cancel due to Covid-19 or donating directly to artists via Patreon.
The arts and cultural sector is creative and resilient and is finding ways to provide their programs to people even during this difficult time. Society can benefit from art now more than ever, and its ability to communicate, connect, and inspire. Consider supporting your local arts community during this challenging time by purchasing a virtual ticket or subscription to streaming services, buying tickets to future performances, or donating to an artist relief fund.
Additional Resources on How Arts Managers are Handling Covid-19:
The Berlin Philharmonic is making streamed concerts free for everyone. Simply log on to the Digital Concert Hall for 30 days and stream concerts free of charge for 30 days.
Watch penguins take a tour of Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium via several Twitter posts, with different animal updates to come.
Take note, fundraisers: Fundraising Brick has a fundraising thermometer that you can easily install on your website to let audiences track your development goals.
MCN.edu has an ultimate guide to virtual museum resources, e-learning, and online collections, making it a one-stop guide for viewing art around the world.
As of March 13, IATSE, Actors’ Equity, and AFM Local 802 are making a plea to the federal government to provide aid to impacted workers.
Freelance artists can visit this Wordpress page for a large variety of resources, including teaching, international resources, mental health, advocacy alerts, and emergency funding.
Along with Pittsburgh, several arts intermediaries across the nation are pulling together local resource pages to directly help artists and arts organizations. The Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance, for example, has several resources available on their website.
Americans for the Arts is hosting a survey to collect information on who is affected and the level of disruption caused by the pandemic.
The New York Foundation for the Arts has several emergency grants available to artists in a variety of disciplines.
Musicians Foundation is accepting applications for emergency grants for musicians.
Foundation for Contemporary Arts has grants available for a variety of disciplines.
Hannah Hethmon of Better Lemon Creative Audio shared an article on how museums can pull together a quick podcast to share engaging content with their audiences.
Artists and celebrities are streaming their own unique programming in response to COVID-19. For example:
Josh Gad streamed a book reading session of Ian Falconer’s “Olivia Goes to Venice.”
Kennedy Center’s Artist-in Residence Mo Willems will host a livestream every day for the next few weeks called LUNCH DOODLE. Viewers can doodle along with Willems, and each video includes captions.
Actors Ben Platt, Kathryn Gallagher, and Noah Galvin hosted a virtual dance party via #QuaranTunes on the Stationhead Social Radio app and each actors’ Instagram. Donations were collected to benefit the NYC Food Bank.
Smithsonian Magazine posted an article with brief advice on handling communications during the pandemic.
Traveling artists and presenters can keep track of Airfarewatchdog’s list of domestic and international airline policies, including refunds.
For the first time in streaming history, Comcast NBCUniversal announced that films will be available for streaming on the same day as their theatrical release. These movies will be available for a two-day digital rental at $19.99.