The webinar was based in part on the NEA’s report The Art of Reopening: A Guide to Current Practices Among Arts Organizations During COVID-19 that was published in January 2021. The report examines reopening practices of organizations that resumed in-person programming in 2020 and presents promising tactics and nine case studies.

The first webinar featured opening remarks by Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the National Institutes of Health and included a panel of three of the organizations featured as case studies in the report: Scott Altman, president & CEO, Cincinnati Ballet, Cincinnati, Ohio; Chloe Cook, executive director, Sidewalk Film Center & Cinema, Birmingham, Alabama; Rebecca Read Medrano, co-founder and executive director, GALA Hispanic Theatre, Washington, DC.