The coronavirus pandemic has silenced the world’s theatres, concert venues, cinemas and festivals. Depending on the location, it has repeatedly opened and closed our museums and art galleries. This unprecedented situation has had a profound effect on many of us whose professional, emotional and social lives are reliant on or affected by Arts & Culture. 

Arts & Culture help us to pursue a meaningful life: they challenge our brain and feed our soul. On a weekly basis, to get out from the stress or routine of our daily lives, we planned evenings out to attend performances in a theatre, a big hall or a small local venue. We spent our free time visiting art exhibitions in museums and galleries around the city. Several of us chose to spend their holiday attending yearly festivals where we could mingle with others, share our views, discover new pieces and meet artists. The mere fact of sitting with  strangers, without any fear, in huge auditoriums or intimate venues and sharing the same experience positively affect our mood and emotions and contribute to build our sense of compassion and resilience. For so many, Arts & Culture are essential ingredients in our daily lives: they fill our existence with joy, appease our curiosity, make us dream and open our eyes on others’ fears and concerns. It is not surprising that we have been struggling these last months without them. 

Like in many exceptional periods of crisis, very good ideas have emerged to keep creativity going, to let so many frustrated artists actually play, do what they love… There is currently a trend towards digital culture and some initiatives created as backups to in-person experiences have been particularly good and different from what we are used to. The pandemic has also contributed in the acceleration of many digitization projects that were already under way in the visual arts and theatre worlds. 

Listening to artists performing spontaneously in the intimacy of their home was in itself very moving in the context of what was happening outside on our streets. Some live television shows, for example Hope@home on Arte, have succeeded in delivering musical performances with excellent sound effects. Professional filming with close-ups that captured the artists’ emotions added excitement to the experience. Other projects such as Akram Khan’s film Our Animal Kingdom created in collaboration with Numeridance, managed to put together a multitude of individual performances by dancers from all over the world and of all ages, physical capabilities and level of dance. The result was powerful and larger than the sum of its parts. It shows us how art as a collective experience is poignantly beautiful. Similarly, it has been a unique experience to enter into several collectors’ homes thanks to initiatives such as the live instagram feeds by Anita Zabludowicz, founder of the Zabludowicz Collection. 

It is a fact that digital delivery offers the opportunity to extend our reach geographically and demographically, and when a project is specifically made for the digital, it can offer something different and new, and can remarkably well complement live performances. The problem is that we currently have an overdose of online activities. Since the first lockdown, we are glued to our electronic devices both for professional and personal reasons. Time spent on streaming services for our entertainment has surged. How many live Zoom concerts can we watch? How many online fairs and art exhibitions can we follow?

It is in exceptional moments like these that we realize that nothing can match the experience of a live performance or a physical attendance. The close human contacts that it provides, the mere feeling of the person near you laughing or crying, experiencing the silence in the room, clapping after the performance, moving or dancing to the beat, approaching a painting to scrutinize its texture, being present in the space... 

Even in our troubled times, we should all support more outdoor exhibitions and performances to help us slowly rebuild confidence and soon go back to our local theatre, our museums, galleries and concert halls. 

Wishing you a healthy and culturally active New Year!