By now, we all know that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused inimaginable changes all over the world. The “new normal” has affected our daily lives in many different aspects, especially the way we interact and perceive the simple things in our day to day.
But have you thought about the revolution art is going through? From movie theaters to museums, all of those places are functioning with certain limitations, such as the number of people it supports, meaning most of them can’t maintain their normal operation patterns. So the real question is, what does the future hold for art?
Art is nothing without someone to portrait it and someone else to receive it, so the scenery has definitely changed. Check out some of the examples of how this transformation it’s happening:
Ballet
During the lockdown, several ballet schools and companies have turned their kitchen counters into their bares, while recording their training and perhaps trying to help other dancers who have been struggling, it’s been incredible to see so many experienced people helping each other. A number of videos have been posted, where the dancers do their choreographies in the middle of their living rooms or their backyards, videos which, with the power of editing, have turned into beautiful compilations.
But now, even though the studios have started to open, the theaters remain closed and the ballet community has to work in order to come up with ways to portray their art. A Brazilian ballet school called Ballet Paula Castro found an innovative way to do so, something completely new for them.
Juliana Castro, the director of the school, prepared a video where she explains how the “new normal” would be. The students would, one by one, go to the school and be recorded dancing their choreographies, but the intriguing part is that they’ll do that in front of a green screen, so that the editors can put whatever scenery they want behind the dancers. That way no one gets exposed and at the end of the year they’ll have a great, and different, performance of every student together (but apart).
Orchestras
Such as the ballet community, orchestras had to renew their way of enchanting. While at home, members of different orchestras have shared videos and compilations of their harmony together, all done separately and edited later.
But with time, singing to a screen is not enough anymore. That being said, groups of orchestral players from New York Philharmonic have been giving unannounced street concerts through New York, in order to “share what music can do”. Besides that, the Philharmonic is also encouraging its pop-up audiences to dance, applaud and interact between songs, something they wouldn’t normally do. It’s beautiful to see the power music has and how bright the audience looks while the performance is happening.
Museums
Museums live out of people coming in to see the art they display, so it’s only imaginable how hard it’s been for that type of business. It’s safe to say that social media has been playing a great role in this, since museums all over the world have been interacting with the public via posts and tweets. But what about the experience of seeing it all live?
When the lockdown started, many museums moved quickly to the virtual space. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, for example, has really finessed its online offering with different types of exhibitions and articles displaying the art and the artists, something that attracted a big audience, since people were also looking for new things to do. So, who knows? Maybe this will be art’s new normal: being displayed virtually, where the public can have full access at all times and from home.
There are a lot of other types of art that have been through difficulty, such as movie theaters, operas and so on. It’s really important to try and support those, since the core of art is portraying it and showing it to an audience, be it online or not. Therefore, it’s nice to see people reinventing themselves and helping each other succeed, after all, there’s only one way to get through this: together. Respecting the social distancing measures and wearing masks!