Here at Americans for the Arts we have been watching and listening to developments of COVID-19 and the impacts to the arts and culture field across the nation, as well as rethinking our own in-person events. In the next days and weeks you will be receiving information from AFTA about webinars, resources and other information pertaining to supporting arts and culture professionals like yourselves. We take the health of our members and colleagues seriously and want to provide access to resources and information to support you and your work during this time.
Take care of yourselves first so you can take care of each other and your communities:
Stay home when you are sick and avoid contact with sick people.
Wash your hands for at least 20 seconds with hot water and soap.
If soap and water aren’t available use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
Cover your mouth and nose when you sneeze with a tissue.
Clean and disinfect spaces around your home and office with a household cleaning solution.
Resources we currently have available:
Arts and Culture Sector Can Prepare for the Coronavirus in the United States, a recent blog post that has a ton of useful information about what we know, preparation and planning, prevention, and dispelling the stigma of COVID-19.
New Orleans After Katrina: Public Art Amid Natural Disaster, though this case study focuses on the devastation of New Orleans and recovery of the public art program after Hurricane Katrina, there are many lesson learned about preparing to leave an office. Relevant today, the last few pages provide insight into how to protect a public art collection if you cannot access your office and resources for recovery.
Resources we would like to gather:
As the public art field can appear to be built on deadlines, it would be great to gather recommendations or resources to help each other continue working even if offices shut down. Some questions that come to mind are:
What have you done or seen done in order to implement community engagement processes?
What resources, apps, processes have you seen used to connect with colleagues in your program? Across departments? Across agencies/organizations?
What will you need to adapt? What other resources would do you recommend to your public art colleagues?
Feel free to send your thoughts to the full PAN Listserv by mailing Pan directly at pwalsh@artsusa.org.
On a personal note, with the ever evolving updates about the COVID-19 virus that has a global, national and local impact, I feel like we are living in a world much different than even a few weeks ago. And I swear at times it feels like we are all living in a movie. I woke up this morning with a local radio DJ exclaiming that there morning radio shows getting cancelled which I didn’t think that would ever be a thing to help control spread of the coronavirus – it is a surreal time to be alive for sure.
Americans for the Arts continues to keep business moving as usual and aims to support you to the best of our abilities during these changing times. If anything affecting our capabilities changes, we will let you know.
Stay safe and healthy,
Patricia Walsh
Public Art and Civic Design Senior Program Manager
Americans for the Arts