Category: AUDIENCE

Libraries As ‘Second Responders’ In The COVID Crisis

“When libraries closed their doors abruptly, they immediately opened their digital communications, collaborations, and creative activity to reach their public in ways as novel as the virus that forced them into it. You can be sure that this is just the beginning. Today libraries are already acting and improvising.” Deborah Fallows gives some examples of what they’re doing. – The Atlantic

When COVID Shut This Small Museum Down, Its Community Suffered A Big Loss

“In the eight years since it was founded, the Underground Museum has become not only one of the most important destinations for black art in the country but also a crucial gathering place for its working class Arlington Heights neighborhood [in Los Angeles]. … As cultural institutions all over the world wrestle with how to bring art to the public during the pandemic, smaller ones like the Underground Museum are also trying to figure out how to continue serving communities that have come to rely on them in other ways.” – The New York Times

Soooo… We Were Trying To Cut Down Our Screen Time Before This Happened. How’s It Going?

Covered in screens these past few weeks, I have noticed some positive changes. I FaceTime my friends so much that I know them better than I did before. I decided to learn what TikTok was, and I love it. I spend hours with my chin tucked into my chest and a weird smile on my face, watching. I’m using Duolingo, an app to learn languages. – The New York Times

Classical Music Is Thriving As We Quarantine Ourselves

Locked out of the concert hall because of global coronavirus concerns, endangered in physical and financial terms, classical music is fighting to survive and finding more paths than ever to listeners. Part of this phenomenon is that we’re quite literally a captive audience. But another part is the odd compatibility between classical music and digital media. – Washington Post

Attendance At Public Events May Not Recover Post-Pandemic: Study

“In a survey of 1,000 consumers in the U.S., 44% of respondents said they would attend fewer large public events, even once they are cleared by the CDC, with 38% saying they’d attend about the same number … And 47% agreed that the idea of going to a major public event ‘will scare me for a long time.'” (They’re most leery of theme parks and indoor concert and sports venues.) – Variety

Classical Music Activity Explodes Online As Shutdown Closes Stages

In-person performances have been replaced by a deluge of digital ones — live streams and recently unlocked archive recordings — that have made for a calendar hardly less busy than before concert halls closed. It’s enough to keep a critic happily overwhelmed, yet also wondering whether the industry is making a mistake by giving away so much for free. – The New York Times

Next Step In Social Distancing And The Arts: Live Performance For One Audience Member At A Time

In a project called “One on One”, the Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre, known as one of the most innovative in Russia, will let 850 people (as many as the auditorium could hold) register for a lottery for each ballet, concert, or opera; one winner will get to buy a ticket at the regular price and attend. Says director Marat Gatsalov, “We’d been told that we can’t let viewers into the theatre hall. But that doesn’t mean we can’t let just one viewer in.” – The Guardian