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.

Due to overwhelming interest, the Arts Endowment is considering how to provide further resources and information to help arts groups safely navigate the pandemic and bring their audiences safely back into visual and performing arts spaces and theaters. We are especially interested in hearing from organizations in the arts field that are reopening or planning to reopen, and the obstacles, challenges, and successes they have encountered. We will be looking at ways to share this important information with the field. 

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU

If you are an arts organization who has reopened or is planning to reopen, we would love to hear from you. Click the link below and let us know what challenges you faced or are concerned about and how you met those challenges, or are approaching them. We are looking to create a “best practices” collection of the stories you share that could potentially help other organizations facing similar obstacles. Together, we can all get through these hard times.

Tell Us Your Story