Creative response to virus from artists and musicians
AS the COVID-19 crisis intensifies, artists, musicians, writers and other cultural performers and composers have been responding creatively to boost their own spirits and to keep morale high among their followers and fans.
One of the inevitable impacts of the crisis is the cancellation and postponement of many concerts and gigs for the creative community. As a result their income is drying up.
It’s estimated that, at the time of writing, €37m worth of revenue for artists and musicians has already been lost since the COVID-19 crisis took hold in Ireland.
Ionad Cultúrtha an Dochtúir Ó Loingsigh in Baile Mhúirne is a popular venue for concerts and exhibitions. Already its director, Dr Aoife Granville, has had to cancel concerts which were due to be held at the venue on Friday of this week and last week.
Now, as she looks ahead, the Ionad director has decided to bring forward a series of residencies the cultural centre was about to offer to traditional artists – that is to say traditional musicians, singers, dancers and others.
“Siobhán Ní Dhuinnín, the dancer, is the current resident artist and her residency comes to an end in June - the residencies we’ve announced now will come into effect from July
“Opening this application process gives artists, many of whom are currently at home having lost their gigs, an opportunity to come up with projects which might be suitable for this residency,” said Aoife.
Traditional artists who are selected for this project will get an opportunity to use the Ionad facility for a week and get paid a stipend of €500 for that.
“March is traditionally the biggest earning month for musicians and obviously they’re going to be very short this year - it’s not just about March, it’s about what’s going to happen in the months ahead.”
She also stressed that the residencies are contingent on the end of the COVID-19 outbreak.
“We’re also aware that there are many other problems out there because of this outbreak but we’re a cultural centre and we have to look to artists – artists working in the traditional fields in particular.
“I’m also looking forward to hearing about new ideas for projects and discussing these with the artists proposing them,” she added.
Meanwhile, artists themselves are taking the initiative with a range of online performances and classes which they’re offering to fans and arts lovers.
Siobhán Ní Dhuinnín, the current resident dancer at the Ionad, has recorded a section of her latest dance class at the centre and broadcast it online.
Acclaimed guitarist Jim Murray from Macroom was also offering daily performances and tutorials.
In a recent posting, he was playing inside in his kitchen and was joined outside his backdoor by his fellow Macrompian, singer Fiona Kelleher, who sang her own composition, ‘I Will Put My Ship In Order’.
Other performances to go online as artists and musicians respond is a Mother’s Day set of tunes from Cúil Aodha brothers, Diarmuid, Colm and Eamon Ó Meachair, who played a rousing set of tunes to raise the spirits of the Laochra Óg Hurling Club.
Others to get involved in the artistic effort to raise the spirits of those confined to quarters due to this outbreak include another Macrompian, film maker Dónal Ó Céilleachair.
The award winning director of a number of films, including Camino an tSáile/The Camino Voyage, is offering a free voucher to watch any of his acclaimed documentaris on his online cinema portal at www. anupictures.com.
“For the strange times we live in, here’s a free promotional code to watch one of our inspiring music documentaries from the comfort of your own home.
“Stay safe and take of yourselves and each other in these challenging times,” he remarked.
Peadar Ó Riada, whose music features in a number of Dónal’s movies, is planning online tunes with some of his musician friends but is currently trying to work out to accomplish this while observing physical distancing - one of the musicians being in Clare!
Another scheme to have been launched this past week is Music Network’s plan to commission 20 musicians to compose new pieces of music which will be premièred online on the network’s You Tube channel.
Ireland’s National Theatre, the Abbey, will this week announce a list of 50 Irish writers and actors who will write and perform pieces under the title ‘Dear Ireland’ which will be premièred on the theatre’s social media channels in April.
This coming Friday, the theatre will broadcast on its social media channels a performance of ‘Cyprus Avenue’, a play by David Ireland which stars Stephen Rea and has won rave reviews and a number of awards.
Classes in various artforms are continuing as traditional music teachers are going online to platforms such as Skype and Zoom to carry on tutoring their students.
There’s obviously been a huge upsurge in people viewing online content by musicians and artists – but clearly people are not paying the artists directly and this is leaving them short.
A recent scheme by the online platform Bandcamp has facilitated direct payment to artists but this will only go a little way towards recouping the income lost by artists.