Tips for feeding need for culture in a coronavirus lockdown
Enjoying arts, with all due cautions, and how to help makers, displayers
Local arts in a time of coronavirus: No concerts to hear. No plays to watch. No gallery openings to roam. For all of us, crazy times. For arts organizations and the artists themselves, even crazier.
While museums, musicians, artists and theater companies across the region are battening down the hatches, the rest of us shouldn’t forget they exist. It’s one thing to ride out the pandemic from our sofas, bingeing on Netflix in our pj’s; it’s another to make and present art for a living without your usual audience.
How can they keep the public engaged? How can they keep the coffers filled? With online programming. Virtual classes and concerts. Downloadable music. Streamable films. Social-media posts, videos, other forms of engagement. The key, for the (un)foreseeable future: to reach people at home.
“Utilizing this virtual platform is what we and many other arts organizations are doing — and of course we’re gonna be reminding everybody that we’re here, and we’ll still need your support,” said Tammis K. Groft, executive director of the Albany Institute of History and Art.
Like so many other institutions and venues around the region, AIHA is temporarily closed to the public. But in the days ahead, Groft said, the museum will be doing its best to get stuff out and pull folks in — with its digital collections, with its Google Streetview tours of galleries, with other digital content.
And if people like what they see, she said, maybe they can give something: $5, $10, $50. “And not just museums, but all the arts. Because without people coming in the doors, without programming, you know, all of us together — we’re all in the same boat,” Groft said. “It’s not business as usual. We just want to remind people to support all of the arts.”
Keep your ears peeled for virtual concerts.
Caffe Lena, the venerable folk venue in Saratoga Springs, is coping with the quarantine (or whatever this is) by offering nightly Stay Home Sessions on its YouTube channel: “Performances in the listening room without an audience present, broadcast live for the community to enjoy during this uncertain time of social isolation. Please prioritize your health and well-being, and use these nightly live streams as a respite from the stress of our current situation.”
Meanwhile, many local acts themselves are performing via Facebook Live, including the Misty Blues Band, a Berkshires group that’s started streaming “social distancing” concerts in place of analog gigs. Ubiquitous country rockers Skeeter Creek have also gone live online.
“Do we know what’s gonna happen next week, next month or next year? No,” they said in a recent FB post. “All we can do is be positive and go with the flow.”
Also: You can give. The Caffe Lena YouTube gigs offer a virtual tip jar.
Purchase recordings by local musicians.
So your favorite band has canceled its gigs? That classical ensemble you’d always meant to check out suspended its concerts? Now’s the time to check them out and download their music — see Amazon, ReverbNation, Bandcamp — or, if you can, buy physical copies of recordings from various platforms.
Maybe you’ve been reading for years about the Albany Symphony’s Grammy-winning John Corigliano album: go ahead and snap up a copy. Or, hmmm, you keep hearing about some singer-songwriter who’ll maybe never hit the Top 40 but has been out there for ages, cranking out superlative stuff, and recently dropped a terrific new soul-rock album (Buggy Jive, anyone?). No better time to give it a listen.
Also: You can give.
Purchase books and ebooks by local writers — and scribes with local ties.
What, so you never read William Kennedy’s “Ironweed”? Gregory Maguire’s “Wicked”? Toni Morrison’s “Beloved,” which she wrote during her stint teaching at UAlbany? Go for it. Or for that matter, purchase any books, no matter their geographic origin, from local bookstores. The Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza is offering deliveries within a 10-mile radius — and Market Block Books in Troy is offering the same within a 5-mile radius.
Don’t stop at books within your usual comfort zone. In these extraordinary times, go for something truly outside the ordinary — maybe Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenya’s searing, dystopian “Friday Black,” which he started as a UAlbany undergrad.
And if you don’t actually read any of these books? You’re still supporting the authors.
Also: You can give.
Keep your eyes peeled for virtual art.
Visit museum and gallery websites. Look for fine-arts programming: online content, classes, and exhibit sneak peaks that many of the region’s arts venues and institutions will be offering in short order if they aren’t already. AIHA is just one example.
Also: You can give.
Venture into the real world to see outdoor sculpture and public art in the region.
If you haven’t checked out Albany Center Gallery’s Capital Walls murals project, now’s the ideal time. Art Omi in Ghent, while canceling its classes events and closing its indoor center, is still welcoming visitors to its sprawling sculpture and architecture park. (With this proviso: “We encourage all visitors to observe a safe distance from others when visiting the park.”)
As for the Empire State Plaza, well, yeah, you might want to steer clear of the concourse. But the aboveground expanse includes some of the most striking examples from the New York school of abstract expressionism in any public collection anywhere, including George S. Rickey’s kinetic “Two Lines Oblique” — that’s the one with the spinning needles — and Claes Oldenburg’s Mickey-inspired “Geometric Mouse.”
Also: You can give.
Buy a ticket to something scheduled later in the year — even something you probably won’t attend.
Become a member of a museum that’s temporarily closed. Buy a subscription to an upcoming 2020-2021 concert or theater season. Local theater companies — and art spaces, and venues and all sorts of event series — are reeling. Yes, we should support them by keeping abreast of their online programming as we muddle through this crisis. We should follow them on all the varied social media platforms and check out their websites regularly.
But as we do, let’s pitch in. Public life will return at some point. So will live, local arts. Let’s invest in them now. Don’t ask for refunds to canceled events.
And give.
Create your own art, make your own music, write your own stories, belt out your own song.
All of that sustains us in the best and the worst of times. Whatever we’re in now — be it the end of days or some weird detour in the long arc of history — art will help us through.
Once you’re done, upload it. Share it online — and maybe, once this is over, you can share it in the real world too.
That would be a gift unto itself.
Local arts in a time of coronavirus: No concerts to hear. No plays to watch. No gallery openings to roam. For all of us, crazy times. For arts organizations and the artists themselves, even crazier.
While museums, musicians, artists and theater companies across the region are battening down the hatches, the rest of us shouldn’t forget they exist. It’s one thing to ride out the pandemic from our sofas, bingeing on Netflix in our pj’s; it’s another to make and present art for a living without your usual audience.
How can they keep the public engaged? How can they keep the coffers filled? With online programming. Virtual classes and concerts. Downloadable music. Streamable films. Social-media posts, videos, other forms of engagement. The key, for the (un)foreseeable future: to reach people at home.
“Utilizing this virtual platform is what we and many other arts organizations are doing — and of course we’re gonna be reminding everybody that we’re here, and we’ll still need your support,” said Tammis K. Groft, executive director of the Albany Institute of History and Art.
Like so many other institutions and venues around the region, AIHA is temporarily closed to the public. But in the days ahead, Groft said, the museum will be doing its best to get stuff out and pull folks in — with its digital collections, with its Google Streetview tours of galleries, with other digital content.
And if people like what they see, she said, maybe they can give something: $5, $10, $50. “And not just museums, but all the arts. Because without people coming in the doors, without programming, you know, all of us together — we’re all in the same boat,” Groft said. “It’s not business as usual. We just want to remind people to support all of the arts.”
Here are few ways folks can pitch in to support local artists and arts groups.
Keep your ears peeled for virtual concerts
Caffe Lena, the venerable folk venue in Saratoga Springs, is coping with the quarantine (or whatever this is) by offering nightly Stay Home Sessions on its YouTube channel: “Performances in the listening room without an audience present, broadcast live for the community to enjoy during this uncertain time of social isolation. Please prioritize your health and well-being, and use these nightly live streams as a respite from the stress of our current situation.”
Meanwhile, many local acts themselves are performing via Facebook Live, including the Misty Blues Band, a Berkshires group that’s started streaming “social distancing” concerts in place of analog gigs. Ubiquitous country rockers Skeeter Creek have also gone live online.
“Do we know what’s gonna happen next week, next month or next year? No,” they said in a recent FB post. “All we can do is be positive and go with the flow.”
Also: You can give. The Caffe Lena YouTube gigs offer a virtual tip jar.
Purchase recordings by local musicians.
So your favorite band has canceled its gigs? That classical ensemble you’d always meant to check out suspended its concerts? Now’s the time to check them out and download their music — see Amazon, ReverbNation, Bandcamp — or, if you can, buy physical copies of recordings from various platforms.
Maybe you’ve been reading for years about the Albany Symphony’s Grammy-winning John Corigliano album: go ahead and snap up a copy. Or, hmmm, you keep hearing about some singer-songwriter who’ll maybe never hit the Top 40 but has been out there for ages, cranking out superlative stuff, and recently dropped a terrific new soul-rock album (Buggy Jive, anyone?). No better time to give it a listen.
Also: You can give.
Purchase books and ebooks by local writers — and scribes with local ties
What, so you never read William Kennedy’s “Ironweed”? Gregory Maguire’s “Wicked”? Toni Morrison’s “Beloved,” which she wrote during her stint teaching at UAlbany? Go for it. Or for that matter, purchase any books, no matter their geographic origin, from local bookstores. The Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza is offering deliveries within a 10-mile radius — and Market Block Books in Troy is offering the same within a 5-mile radius.
Don’t stop at books within your usual comfort zone. In these extraordinary times, go for something truly outside the ordinary — maybe Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenya’s searing, dystopian “Friday Black,” which he started as a UAlbany undergrad.
And if you don’t actually read any of these books? You’re still supporting the authors.
Also: You can give.
Stream movies and web series by local filmmakers
Sure, use this occasion to revisit every Marvel movie ever made. But in between, why not explore some engaging flicks and series with nearby roots? Try “Welcome Home,” a terrifically funny, locally created, locally shot show about “a–holes in our 30s living at our parents’ houses” that’s available on Amazon Prime. Or screen your own mini-festival of Capital Region-made films: “Ironweed,” “The Place Beyond the Pines,” “Scent of a Woman,” “Seabiscuit.”
See and purchase art from local creators — virtually, at least. Is there someone you particularly admire? Find them on Facebook, Instagram, Patreon. In the mood to shop around and meet new creators and voices? Explore the artists in residence at the Albany Barn (albanybarnorg). Or take an online jaunt to the Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy (mediasanctuary.org), watch its Sanctuary TV, listen to its radio broadcasts at 105.3, and get to know its community.
Also: You guessed it — give.
Keep your eyes peeled for virtual art
Visit museum and gallery websites. Look for fine-arts programming: online content, classes, and exhibit sneak peaks that many of the region’s arts venues and institutions will be offering in short order if they aren’t already. AIHA is just one example.
That’s right: You can give.
Venture out to see outdoor sculpture and public art in the region
If you haven’t checked out Albany Center Gallery’s Capital Walls murals project, now’s the ideal time. Art Omi in Ghent, while canceling its classes events and closing its indoor center, is still welcoming visitors to its sprawling sculpture and architecture park. (With this proviso: “We encourage all visitors to observe a safe distance from others when visiting the park.”)
As for the Empire State Plaza, well, yeah, you might want to steer clear of the concourse. But the aboveground expanse includes some of the most striking examples from the New York school of abstract expressionism in any public collection anywhere, including George S. Rickey’s kinetic “Two Lines Oblique” — that’s the one with the spinning needles — and Claes Oldenburg’s Mickey-inspired “Geometric Mouse.”
And, yes: You can give.
Buy a ticket for something later — even something you probably won’t attend
Become a member of a museum that’s temporarily closed. Buy a subscription to an upcoming 2020-2021 concert or theater season. Local theater companies — and art spaces, and venues and all sorts of event series — are reeling. Yes, we should support them by keeping abreast of their online programming as we muddle through this crisis. We should follow them on all the varied social media platforms and check out their websites regularly.
But as we do, let’s pitch in. Public life will return at some point. So will live, local arts. Let’s invest in them now. Don’t ask for refunds to canceled events.
And give.
Create your own art, music, stories, and share what you make
All of that sustains us in the best and the worst of times. Whatever we’re in now — be it the end of days or some weird detour in the long arc of history — art will help us through.
Once you’re done, upload it. Share it online — and maybe, once this is over, you can share it in the real world too.
That would be a gift unto itself.
EXTERNAL LINK: https://www.timesunion.com/living/article/Tips-for-feeding-need-for-culture-in-a-15140582.php
