How Orange County's Visual Arts World is Coping with the Coronavirus

The Metropolitan Museum in New York has interested tens of thousands of hearing-impaired art enthusiasts through their American Sign Language (ASL) tours on Facebook Live. The ASL tours are part of the Met’s newly launched Open Access initiative, which focuses on expanding the access of their collections online. In addition to the high numbers of engagement, the ASL online tours bring attention to American Sign Language and “the Deaf identity.” The Met also offers transcripts of curatorial guides for in-person visitors.

The Send Me SFMOMA program allows people to text a number with a request based on a variable such as a object, mood, or color and receive back an image of an appropriate work in the SFMOMA collection. Through this service, which SFMOMA has made open source for other museums to use, the museum is able to connect with the public and ‘display’ a much higher percentage of its holdings.

Through augmented reality (AR) effects, street artists have created surprising, novel experiences in museums and in public. Using an app, viewers can see murals in motion, art floating in the air, and new ‘additions’ to a museums holdings.

Museums all over the country are trying to attract diverse audiences. One of those is the Frick museum in New York which has a program called the Ghetto Film School project. Twenty students from the Bronx are selected to attend a weekly discussion-based seminar. At the end, students must write a script. “The winning script is turned into a movie and filmed at the museum.” “People should feel they can go to museums, learn something, and improve their lives in doing so.”

Creating spaces for art and artists to thrive can have a positive impact on a city’s economy. By converting disused buildings into studio spaces and galleries for artists, the Tides Institute and Museum of Art (TIMA) in Eastport, Maine, has made arts and culture a crucial component of the city’s character. In addition to TIMA’s Studioworks initiative, many of the city’s residents are actively engaged in festivals and other activities that attract tourism.

For many jobs across the country, working from home is a fairly easy adaptation to cope with social distancing measures. But for many scientists who work in laboratories with ongoing research, a work from home solution does not quite fit. Labs and universities are finding ways to adapt and prioritize which experiments to put on hold.

Wine bars and cheese shops in the Detroit area are taking their businesses online during the COVID-19 pandemic by offering virtual tasting classes to their customers. The Royce and Marrow, a wine bar, is connecting viewers with winemakers around the world with their “At Home With Wine” series and Mongers’ Provisions, a cheese shop, set up tasting classes about cheese, chocolate, and charcuterie, with tasting samples delivered to homes or collected via curbside pickup. While there are learning curves for hosting online classes, many shops enjoy connecting with their communities.

When the coronavirus pandemic forced a local bookstore in Texas to shut its doors for safety concerns, the owner launched a hotline for readers to call into for book recommendations. Although the instant success has seen a slight decrease in callers as the pandemic has continued, it's still retaining a steady number with many callers turning into patrons.

Developed out of an Arts & Labor working group during Occupy Wall Street, the Art Handlers Alliance (AHA) advocates for fair compensation and improved hiring practices for art handlers. Using a “bill of rights” as a template, the AHA has been part of negotiations between employers and unions that represent some art handlers—such as the Teamsters—and obtained for workers increased compensation and benefits.

In the midst of a seemingly increasingly divided political and racial landscape, some artists of color are pushing back to create art that represents their own non-White communities. Some artists have chosen to do this by recreating Norman Rockwell’s paintings, which in the earlier part of his career mainly showcased White people. “The image haunted me because of the world we live in,” the artist said, referring to today’s divisive political climate. “I wanted to imagine what it would look like today.”