RESOURCES FROM PERFORMING ARTS IN COVID TIME

THE IMPACT OF COVID ON PERFORMING ARTS

• The Arts and how they're being affected by the pandemic, Robin Pogrebin, New York Times

• A ‘Great Cultural Depression’ Looms for Legions of Unemployed Performers, Patricia Vohen, New York Times

• It’s Not the End, It’s Just an Intermission, Cara Greene Epstein, TEDxWrigleyville

• ‘All Arts Organizations Are Media Companies Now’: How the Pandemic Is Transforming Theater, Gordon Cox, Variety

• For the Met Opera, the Pandemic Could Be a Necessary Reset, Anthony Tommasini, New York Times

• Opera in the Pandemic, Catherine Capellaro, Isthmus

• ‘There have been some surprising benefits’ When Music Lessons Move,  Zoë Madonna, Boston Globe

THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF COVID ON THE CULTURAL SECTOR

• The economic impact of COVID on the arts and culture sector, Americans for the Arts

• • Ongoing: Americans For The Arts monthly one-pagers are available here
• During Economic Highs and Lows, the Arts Are Key Segment of U.S. Economy, National Endowment for the Arts

• Lost Art: Measuring COVID-19’s devastating impact on America’s creative economy, Richard Florida and Michael Seman, Brookings Institute

• Statistics and findings from the ExtendPUA.org Pandemic Relief Survey, of over 1300 Americans who are unemployed or underemployed due to the pandemic, December 2020

• Music Workers Alliance “How Are We Surviving” Survey Summary Report, December 2020

CREATING ART DURING A PANDEMIC

• Looking to Past Pandemics to Determine the Future of Theater, Jake Nevins, NYT

• New York Philharmonic’s effort to stay in touch

• A list of in-person theatrical productions have already happened, with safety plans approved by Actors' Equity Association, and the safety standards are here

• The American Pops Orchestra has been successful in putting on 80 live performances during the pandemic in a proper socially distanced manner. 

SOCIAL JUSTICE

• Theater Artists Decry Racism in Their Industry, Michael Paulson, New York Times 

• A List of Native Theatres and Theatremakers

GOVERNMENT AID FOR THE ARTS

• Advocate for an Arts New Deal and re-establishment of the WPA: americansforthearts.org and to beanartshero.com

• Fauci Suggests Theaters Could Reopen ‘Some Time in the Fall,' Julia Jacobs, New York Times

• Stimulus Offers $15 Billion in Relief for Struggling Arts Venues, Ben Sisario and Emily Cochrane, New York Times

• Arts Advocates Hopeful for Creation of Cabinet-Level Arts & Culture Agency, Broadway World 

• The Arts Are in Crisis. Here’s How Biden Can Help, Jason Farago, New York Times

GIGGING MUSICIANS

• A Bright Spot in the Pandemic Gloom: Jazz is Everywhere in New York, Margot Boyer, New York Times

• Video clip of Brooklyn's "Prospect Heights Community Jam" from October 4, 2020 

• New York Philharmonic's 2020 "pull-up" outdoor chamber-music performances in NYC neighborhoods

• Pop-up outdoor performances staged by NYCNext as part of their mission "to position NYC as the creative and innovative city that will create its next great era through the resilience and creativity of its residents (those here + those still coming)"

• A short essay from May 2020 by Jerome Harris calling for creative strategic data gathering and planning in support of America's jazz enterprise as it works to cope with the effects of the pandemic

• For Musicians, It’s a New Gig Economy, Jennifer Smith

• A massive new program will bring outdoor performances to NYC's streets next year, Shaye Weaver, TimeOut

ACTIVISM AND ADVOCACY

• Advocate for an Arts New Deal and re-establishment of the WPA: americansforthearts.org and to beanartshero.com
• The Actor’s Fund

• Actors' Equity Association petition to "Fund the Arts/Fuel the Economy"

• Arts-related journalism

• Black music action coalition

• Center for Artistic Activism, which conducts training, advising and research in support of work that combines the emotional affect of the arts with the instrumental effect of activism

• ExtendPUA, a pro-Federal-pandemic-relief activism group founded by two unemployed theater-production workers

• Music Workers Alliance, an organization of independent musicians and DJs seeking to improve their working conditions and amplify their voices in the political and economic decision-making that affects their lives

• National Guild for Community Arts Education, which is focused on shaping a resilient and anti-racist future together. Also offers guides and resources for teaching digitally

• New England Musicians Relief Fund

• Racial Equity Institute (REI). An alliance of trainers, organizers, and institutional leaders who want to create racially equitable organizations and systems. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina

ARTS TO SUPPORT DIRECTLY

THEATER

• Black Theatre United (BTU), an advocacy organization to support actors and all theatre staff during this pandemic

• Crossroads Theatre Company in New York City, NY

• Community Theatre of Greensboro

• EMF Eastern Music Festival 

• The Industry Standard Group in New York City, NY

• Here I Am, by Mélisandre Short-Colomb, The Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics, Georgetown, Washington, D.C.
• Mélisandre tells her story of discovering her ancestry, attending Georgetown as an undergraduate student in her early 60s; and she interweaves key moments in her life with excerpts from Georgetown’s archives that capture voices of the slaves and the Jesuits who owned them
• The McCarter Theatre Center in New York City, NY

• The Music Academy of North Carolina's scholarship program

• OPERA America Librettist Prize (apply or support)

• Soul Rep Theater in Dallas, TX
• They are streaming a play about the women who were experimented on by Dr. Marion Sims who is known as the father of Gynecology
• White Snake Projects in Boston, MA, has done a synchronous live opera (or live singing/instrumental performance) over the internet

OPERA

• American Opera Projects

• Greensboro Opera

• Long Beach Opera

• Urban Arias

• West Edge Opera

DANCE

• Dance Artists’ National Collective, a growing group of freelance dance artists organizing for action toward safe, equitable, and sustainable working conditions