Folks, here we are on Week Three of quarantine, social distancing, and Zoom meetings. Week Three of hoarding toilet paper like it’ll protect your ass from this whole thing. (The smartest people out there are those who have saved all their lengthy shopping receipts, they’ll be handy in the coming days.) Week Three of the most significant exercise in adaptation that we’ve seen in decades. I, as you, wake up unsure of which day of the week it is and have grown accustomed to flinching at the daily headlines.
As everything has been unfolding over the last few weeks, I have been meditating on the notion of “abundance” where this term can stand for wealth or scarcity. We’re all hearing about the ubiquitous “abundance of caution” while there is also an abundance of empty shelves in everyone’s local grocery store. In this time of uncertainty, there is an abundance of need coming from every facet of our routine lives as we try to adapt to this new—albeit hopefully temporary—normal.
I want to lean into this idea of plenitude in spite of these troubling times without masquerading as if nothing is wrong. Our lives have been given an indefinite “pause” command and now we must fulfill Darwin’s enduring prophecy. Systems on macro and micro scales are imploding as corporations, governments, and individuals rush to recover from the metaphorical slamming of brakes. The human species has witnessed worse, though that doesn’t make it suck any less.
There are those among you who only wish to dissolve into the bad news and live by the various doom-filled headlines; if you are like me, you might wish to read something good in this time of gloom. If you want pessimism, look elsewhere. I’m here to shed a new perspective on our collective situation through the compelling engagement of the arts.
Museums and galleries, both international and neighborly, are moving through this initial panic and uncertainty by finding more innovative ways to share their resources with the world. When all literal doors have shut, an infinite number of digital ones have opened. Everything is closed; or is it?
The primary manner that any art institution can endure without your physical presence at this time is through your virtual visit and digital patronage. Anyone with an internet connection benefits tremendously and here’s the good news: It’s all free and available right now. You no longer need a plane ticket to New York’s Whitney or Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum, just the information superhighway to Google’s Arts & Culture site to find these cornerstone institutions and countless more in an experience like no other. If you seek to escape that endless Facebook scroll-hole, look no further.
Obviously, it’s not the same experience when mediated through a screen or via video compared to physically standing in front of (or surrounded by) the piece just as listening to a record is not the same as actually going to a concert to see and hear the artist perform live. But it is a singular experience to have the capacity to zoom in on impressionist paintings to see each painterly stroke of which the painting is comprised, roam through the halls of Moscow’s Natural History Museum, or discover intriguing murals painted on walls in faraway corners of the world all without leaving home.
Google has its resources organized in a myriad of ways ranging from region to color to time and features exercises in artificial intelligence, new reference images to draw every day, and guiding questions to consider while meandering this massive virtual domain.
Museums and galleries local to the Tampa Bay area are using social media platforms to give bite-size talks on works in their collections or showcasing digital exhibitions.
Artist Dominique Labauvie, whose show “Warming Up: In Tandem” at Gallery 221@HCC has been indefinitely postponed, has been sharing videos on Instagram of his daughter Esther singing opera on her apartment’s roof in Germany. When Labauvie’s show is officially rescheduled, Esther will be there to perform alongside her father’s works. Opera is a whole other language to me which is a collection of indiscernible sounds, yet I am brought to tears and covered in goosebumps from her recorded performances. I can only imagine what chills I’ll have sharing the same space as her voice in the future.
In addition to established institutions going digital, there are dozens, probably hundreds, of individuals who are sharing lessons in doodling, storytelling, or other creative outlets. For all the first-time parents-turned-homeschoolers wondering endlessly why teachers don’t make millions every year, try encouraging your hostaged students to create and explore new venues. Get out those watercolors and Play-Doh—they’re not just for the kids. The benefits of art therapy are numerous, and the fridge door conveniently doubles as an art gallery.
Videos have been shared of neighbors singing together from their quarantined apartments (we get it, Europe, you have balconies) and musicians are hosting concerts for charity over livestream; millions of hours of movies and shows are filling the time between ordering local takeout; creative tutorials and art institutions are accessible more now than ever before. I hope we all remember relying on the light and emotional power art provided in these times of uncertainty, when all is said and done. These forms of expression have endured for millennia, and for an infinite number of good reasons.
Now is the time to take a few steps back from your hoarding, commute, errands, and other miscellany inherent to the humdrum of the human existence. Evaluate where your energy was being directed and how this forced time off has switched your gears. You can forge new routines and engage in compassion for yourself and your community. Begin so with art, in any form; this is all we can do.
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