ART IS CONTAGIOUS
Confined to our homes, our artistic spirit cannot be silenced by the virus and can help us stay connected in an increasingly isolated world. Under these new, bizarre and restricted conditions and with artists coming up with new ways to reach their audiences from their homes, entertainers taking to the streets to bring some cheer to their locked-up neighbors, and street art flourishing with tributes to frontline health workers, artistic creativity has helped us stay busy and entertained, as well as help us understand and try to make sense of the dystopian reality that we find ourselves in.
CZECH NATIONAL THEATRE ENDS SEASON
MARTIN DIVISEK
The Czech National Theatre symbolically said goodbye to this season with five extraordinary performances for 500 audience members. The National Theatre donates, through hospitals, free tickets for this performance to paramedics as a thank you for their work during the ongoing pandemic of the COVID-19 disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.
QUARANCHELLA NEIGHBORHOOD CONCERT
ETIENNE LAURENT
Adam Chester, who earned the title of the ‘Surrogate Elton John’ for singing and playing the rock star’s parts at rehearsals, organized weekly ‘Quaranchella’ concerts in front of his house for his neighbors in Los Angeles, who would come out onto their lawns or pullover in their cars to listen and enjoy the improvised street performance. Chester chose a different charity each week to donate the money the initiative helped to raise.
DRIVE-IN CINEMA IN SIDNEY
JAMES GOURLEY
The Skyline Drive cinema, a drive-in movie theater in Sydney, reopened two months after closing in March with increased social distancing, including making cars park at least one space away from each other and customers forced to stay inside their vehicles, to help prevent the spread of the pandemic.
VENEZUELAN ARTISTS DURING COVID-19
RAYNER PENA
The virus forced thousands of planned events to be canceled. But city authorities in Caracas and Fundarte went ahead with the Caracas Theater Festival during the second and third weekend of April, with all of the festival’s activities carried out in the facilities of the National Theater and broadcast live online to be able to bring the spectacles on stage to those who were confined to their homes.
CORONA STREET ART
epa STAFF
Street art has risen to prominence during the pandemic, proving itself to be much more than mere graffiti. Murals have sprung up in cities all over the world, helping raise awareness and spread positivity amid the doom and gloom.
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