JCAL went to digital entertainment

QUEENS CHRONICLE, Thursday, June 24, 2021 Page 26

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Hybrid model is the future for an arts center

To stay afloat during Covid, JCAL went digital

by Naeisha Rose

Associate Editor

Like many cultural hubs, the Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning, an organization founded in 1972, had to figure how to recalibrate its programming last year after the government shut it down due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“We immediately pivoted to all things digital,” said Leonard Jacobs, the interim executive director of JCAL. “Our annual dance festival, which is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts — that’s federal money and we didn’t want to give that back, so we pivoted it to something online.”

JCAL used some of its funding to get camera equipment to film 11 choreographers for its dance festival, according to Jacobs.

“We said, ‘We know you are not filmmakers, but we are going to provide you with technical assistance that we can and try to find in your bubble a way to rehearse outside in a park.’ We got all those pieces recorded and we uploaded it to our YouTube page and promoted it.”

There was a lot of hand-holding, according to Courtney Ffrench, the interim artistic director at JCAL.

“Dance choreographers don’t think of themselves as film directors,” said Ffrench. “We had to give them whatever tools or whatever time that they needed effectively to capture dance.”

Some of the choreographers practiced their dance moves in their bedroom, in a garage or in their apartment stairwell.

“We allowed for any idea,” said Ffrench. “We were like ‘Go for it.’ Once we did that, it opened up everything for everybody else. If you wanted to do something, it didn’t really matter if you didn’t have the stage you needed, we were accepting of it. I think it worked out rather well.”

Every aspect of JCAL, including its visual arts, performing arts and educational platform, went digital, according to Jacobs.

“Coming into last summer, into the fall and really accelerating around the turn of this year we have very slowly started to open up in a hybrid way,” said Jacobs. “Where we can have an audience, whether it was outside or inside with masks at 20 percent, we started doing that while preserving everything by capturing it on livestream on YouTube.”

At a board meeting on June 17, Jacobs spoke with other JCAL members who felt they have “been making lemonade for a year,” because not only was the art center able to retain its current visitors through the hybrid model, it was able to attract a new audience online.

Just on YouTube, JCAL went from 100 to 1,100 subscribers with the help of Tyrel Hunt, the marketing manager at the arts center, within nine months.

“We realized that not everybody wanted to be inside this year, even if it’s at a limited amount,” said Ffrench. “We erected a semi-permanent stage outside the [Jamaica Performing Arts Center] in front of the building that is 24 by 24 with rails.”

The stage at JPAC, a performing arts space a few blocks away from JCAL, has been used for rehearsals, dance performances and concerts, according to Ffrench.

“We have an afternoon performance by the Bartlett Contemporaries every Thursday this June and we have other festivals like a jazz festival, like a children’s festival and more,” said Ffrench. “Now people are walking out by JPAC expecting to see something on stage every weekend. It has become somewhat of an attraction and that is one of the best things that we have done.”

The outdoor events are such a success that there are sometimes upward of 200 people at JPAC on a Thursday. The arts center has also gained an audience from people in California, New Delhi and even Myanmar online.

“We’ve had people standing and dancing outside,” said Ffrench, who is prepared to keep the hybrid model going even after the restrictions are lifted. “We believe that more than likely there will another jump or spike [in Covid-19 cases] and I think other businesses should have that as well. These are lessons and I think we need to learn them, and the surest way to learn them is to be prepared.”

Another factor to consider is if an artist gets ill earlier in the day and would prefer to perform from home until they get better, according to Jacobs.

“If we have the technological capability to deliver [a performance] from to a person’s computer, why shouldn’t we do that?” said Jacobs. “It’s part of our mission to serve the community.”

In October 2020, JCAL started streaming without an audience from its own arts center located at 161-04 Jamaica Ave. It had live and hybrid performances in April 2021 at JCAL and JPAC, which is located at 153-10 Jamaica Ave.

Ffrench and Jacobs learned a few things from the experience.

“For people in the arts, this was the most devastating thing they had ever seen,” said Ffrench. “I’m essentially a dancer and dancers couldn’t dance. For our industry, it was more catastrophic than we could ever imagine. We always thought not getting funding would be the thing that was horrendous. This totally surpasses that.”

Before becoming the interim artistic director at JCAL last year, Ffrench was a contemporary dancer for artists like Lisa Lisa and Mariah Carey. He also performed modern dance overseas. He is from Kingston, Jamaica, and lived in Jamaica Hills for a decade before moving to Westbury, LI.

“Artists are never going to be kept down. Artists are never going to be kept from doing their work,” said Jacobs. “It forced everybody to be inventive, resourceful, brave, smart and strategic.”

Jacobs became JCAL’s executive interim director last year too. He had a career as a playwright, theater director, theater critic, arts and culture journalist and director of the Cultural Institutions Unit at the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs. He was raised in Kew Gardens Hills and is an alum of Jamaica High School. He currently lives in Astoria.

JCAL will be restarting its School of the Arts for the summer on July 13. It runs through Aug. 21. The school has 40 different classes for children, teens, adults and seniors that range from theater and dance to ceramics, cartoon animation and more.

“Make a donation,” said Jacobs at jcal.org. Q

The Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning went digital this year by having some performances without an audience. It later had hybrid performances indoors at limited capacity with socially distanced outdoor events. PHOTOS BY TYREL HUNT

“Artists are never going to be kept down.” —Leonard Jacobs, JCAL A pop-up dance class. PHOTO BY TYREL HUNT