Carrying in on the Arts in Worcester During COVID

ENTERTAINMENT, ENTERTAINMENT, ARTS & CULTURE ARTS & CULTURE

CARRYING ON THE ARTS IN WORCESTER DURING COVID-19 RACHEL SHUSTER

COVID-19 has impacted every facet of our lives and that includes the organizations in the city that we know and love. During these challenging times, we have all had to learn as we go regarding steps forward and difficult decisions have had to be made, all with the best interest of the organizations and the community. In fact, some of these decisions have created new opportunities for a “new normal.”

For ArtsWorcester, Executive Director Juliet Feibel says they’ve been taking extra precautions now that they are back open.

“We shut down this spring until this past July, when we reopened with our first-ever all-sculpture show,” Feibel said. “Because it was a small show in the height of summer, it was a good test drive for our new physical distancing and sanitation protocols. We take 10 visitors at a time, and if more than that arrive, we ask them to wait outside or in a separate building hallway until someone else leaves.”

ArtsWorcester is now into their second exhibition rotation, which has also gone smoothly.

“We have two separate galleries, separated by a glass corridor, with good ventilation, access to fresh air and high ceilings,” Feibel said. “You can come in, see the exhibitions, and never touch a thing.”

Feibel also added that their programming for this season is running half as many exhibitions as they would have and extending them twice as long. “This is in part because of reduced finances and because we don't have a clear sense of what foot traffic is like,” she said. “With longer exhibition runs, if there's a shutdown of only a few weeks, people would still have the chance to come and see them.”

Additionally, all of their exhibitions now are produced digitally on their website. “Some exhibitions that were planned for this year are going to be digital only,” Feibel added. “Digital versions of our gallery exhibitions will probably be part of our new normal, going forward.”

As for future plans, Feibel is hopeful.

“In early December, if everything remains stable, we'll open up an exhibition of artwork by Worcester Public School faculty and a show of found-object sculpture by the winner of the Present Tense Prize, Rebecca McGee Tuck,” she said. The Worcester Art Museum has taken similar steps during shutdown and reopening. “We had to change to 100% virtual content,” said Senior Marketing Manager, Julieane Frost. “We pivoted to providing content to our constituents on social media, on our website, through Zoom and Facebook Live, and through more frequent email communications. Since our audiences couldn’t come to the Museum to see the collection, we brought the collection to them.” the biggest challenge is keeping those who are not on social media engaged with the museum, which includes many of their members.

“We responded by increasing our email communication with members from once a month to once a week, which we have continued for the past six months. Our members have appreciated keeping in touch with them, sharing highlights of our social media content, and offering them virtual programs, such as Zoom Curator Talks.”

While new and challenging at times, going virtual as a result of the pandemic has provided progress and innovation for the Worcester Art Museum and will make that a new-norm going forward.

“We will continue to offer virtual programming for the foreseeable future,” Frost said. “Our first virtual exhibition, Kimono Couture: The Beauty of Chiso, will launch on our website in late November and we will open a related exhibition at the Museum on Feb. 6, 2021, called Kimono in Print: 300 Years of Japanese Design.”

The American Antiquarian Society has also made significant shifts in programming and the dayto-day, and have seen new opportunities emerge.

“Normally we would be open, do tours of building, etc. but that has stopped,” James David Moran, vice president for programs and outreach said. “We have shifted our programming, where normally, people would speak about research conducted in the library, to online, using Zoom and Microsoft Teams for calls.”

Moran says that despite the challenges with getting used to using the technology and relying on video, it’s actually been a really good thing.

“We have greatly increased audience size,” he said. “We would do this programming on-site and see 60-200 people but now we are seeing 200+ for virtual programs, and not just people in Worcester – all over the country and internationally. That’s been great.” While Moran says they were always trying to move towards a virtual part of programming, they hope to reopen in person soon.

“Through funding, we have about six fellows that are long term out of 45 total and they are in here three days a week rather than the normal five. We are also doing that so we can put protocols in place like social distancing and ensuring material is quarantined for 72 hours before it is re-shelved after someone’s worked on it.”

Moran indicates they are also taking measures with staff. “We are social distancing, catalogers are now given private spaces to work and schedules are made so there aren’t too many people at a given time. We have been fortunate that we were able to keep all staff on payroll as we were given a grant to keep people working. Luckily we are keeping staff busy even working from home.”

As these organizations and many others like them navigate through this unprecedented time, there have been silver linings that have emerged even through the darkest times. While each situation is unique, with the resiliency of the community and security measures, it is the hope of all of these organizations that we will safely move forward to a new normal, one step at a time.