Accessing culture online means no one has to miss out on their favourites
MUSEUMS and theatres have closed their doors. Festivals and concerts have been cancelled.
But arts lovers should not despair, as innovative ways to access culture during the coronavirus outbreak have been emerging across the world.
For Marie Lewis of Seall, Skye’s rural performing arts venue, keeping the publiclyfunded organisation afloat over the coming months is a priority, as is the continued promotion of Scottish artists and musicians, many of whom have lost their incomes with the cancellation of gigs, tours and events.
She said: “The knock-on effect of this is throughout all industries, but performers and musicians on the frontline have got no work, it’s just dropped out.”
But the Scottish arts community are banding together to provide online concerts, singing and instrument lessons and planning weekend music festivals.
Ms Lewis said: “They’re doing some really innovative things and all supporting each other. Our role as arts organisers is to facilitate that and see how we can continue to programme and be a platform for those people.
“There’s just such a lovely will to work together and make something out of this.”
Seall will be live streaming events on a donation basis that goes directly to the performer, in a move that Ms Lewis sees as going some way to ‘democratise’ the arts.
She said: “If you took away the arts so much would be lost. Especially now, live performances are such an important thing. If people don’t have to pay but make a donation, we could make this so democratic.”
With just an internet connection and a computer or mobile phone, incredible venues can be visited virtually.
Google Arts and Culture’s collection includes the British Museum in London, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the Guggenheim in New York City and the Musée d’Orsay, Paris.
After cancelling its live performances. New York’s Metropolitan Opera announced it would stream encore presentations from the awardwinning Live in HD series of cinema transmissions from its website.
Edinburgh Zoo has panda, koala, penguin and tiger cams while polar bear, giraffe and elephant fans can log on to San Diego Zoo for live feeds.
Nasa has made their entire media library public for the first time ever while museums across the world have pooled a resource of more than 113 downloadable colouring books, including anatomy and industrial illustrations and 16th century European maps, as part of the Color Our Collections initiative from the New York Academy of Medicine.
The Radio Garden site randomly selects local radio stations from across the world and tunes you in, while the Drama Online Library is a portal to theatre from the National Theatre, the Donmar Warehouse and more.
People can take a virtual tour of the National Museum of Scotland galleries on Google Street View, read about the collections online, or access educational materials for children via their website.
Helen Ireland, director of external relations, said: “While our museums are closed for the foreseeable future, there are still lots of ways people can enjoy our collections virtually. Through our website people can explore our collections, read our blog to find out how we care for and conserve the enormous range of objects in our care and even take a virtual tour of the National Museum of Scotland galleries with Google Street View.
“This is a tough time for everyone and while people are at home we hope to help relieve the boredom, foster a sense of wellbeing, and offer educational resources to keep children entertained while at home.”
ZOEY CLARK should have been preparing to go to Florida for a warm-weather training camp right now. Instead, the 400m runner is stuck at home in Aberdeen, looking for a suitable field she can run around.
The coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc across the sporting world over the past few weeks, and Clark is just one of thousands of athletes who have been severely affected by the disruption.
It is an unsettling time for Clark. The 25-year-old was well on track to qualify for her first Olympic Games but instead, the next few months are filled with uncertainty.
“It’s mad because things have changed so quickly,” said the world championship relay silver medallist.
“As recently as last week, we thought our camp in America would still go ahead and then a couple of days later, it was all cancelled. Everything happened really quickly.”
As things stand, the Olympics will go ahead in July. That may be looking more and more unlikely, but Clark has to go on the Games organisers’ advice, which tells athletes to prepare as best they can.
It is quite a mental challenge though, Clark readily admits, to focus solely on training with so much going on elsewhere.
“It’s so hard to get your head around everything and what’s so difficult is that we still don’t know what’s going to happen,” she said.
“With how things are, you can’t see the Olympics going on as normal but this week, the organisers said things were going ahead.
“You can’t get closure because you still have to prepare as if the Olympics are on and you have to stay motivated but then in the back of your mind, you’re wondering if the Olympics will happen.
“I desperately want the Olympics to take place this year because we work in fouryear cycles and literally the past four years have been leading to this but you also have to be sensible and so maybe it will have to be delayed.”
The next few months are going to be very different from those Clark had prepared for.
Her regular training venue, the Aberdeen Sports Village, closed indefinitely yesterday and so she has had to rapidly adapt to exceptional circumstances that may last months. And with her coach ensuring the training group Clark is normally a part of do not come into close contact