Moss Arts Center: Inside the Box

streaming programs. The freedom to explore varieties of art is also cheaper and easier. Not historically a Broadway musical fan? Queue up "Hamilton" with a 7-day free trial of broadwayhd.com. Never really be keen on naked Renaissance sculptures? Try a 360-degree look at Michelangelo’s David in Florence, Italy. One ticket, or one site log-in, has the potential to reach several people in a household. This could be seen as a negative impact of revenue dollars or, simply, more eyes on art. And more eyes on art may very well translate into new, diversified, and paying, audience profiles in the future. Lora Brown, owner of Blacksburg’s Hello Bagel, purchased Moss’s fall performance package. “I love the theater and live performances in general,” she states. Loraandherhusband,Matt,are parents of two small children. “We most likely would not have taken them to an actual concert, but low key at home was nice. They were way more engaged than either Matt or I would have expected. We normally would have been worried about their behavior or not taken them at all.” Now is the time to celebrate art reaching new minds. A Business Insider article from June 2020 reports: “This is, perhaps, art at its most accessible. Online viewing rooms and virtual tours are the new evening shows, and jet-set is from the bed to the couch.” Thesedays,youcangetdressed up in your best sweatpants, settle on the couch with a glass of wine and your favorite throw littered with dog hair, turn onyourTVandwatchaliveperformance by the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center. You can take a walk around The Vatican or a section of The Great Wall of China with a cat on your lap and dinner simmering on the stove. We no longer go to the art; art now comes to us. And while it doesn’t replace an in-person experience, there is a certain intimacy that occurs watching your favorite musician perform from their own home. Convenience is king, as the old adage goes. The ability to zoom in on a painting likely outweighs standing in a gaggle of onlookers to catch a hurried glimpse of, say, The Mona Lisa. Or if you’re unable to catch the Friday night debut of your local orchestra’s rendition of Mozart’s "The Magic Flute," you can always stream it later. “Everyone misses in-person of course, and that’s what we are looking forward to. There’s something very different about having the community come together in one place for a shared experience,” Waalkes concludes. The energy of a full auditorium is, ironically, epidemic. As time goes on, the creative community continues to get creative, adapting on the fly and brainstorming better practices to bridge the gap between art and audience. We feed our soul by way of the brain, which has the amazing ability to make the best out of what’s in front of us.

Nancy S. Moseley is a freelance writer who streamed Hamilton in the early days of lockdown from the comforts of home.