How Orange County's Visual Arts World is Coping with the Coronavirus

Alleys in Seattle were once places of illicit, illegal, and unsanitary activity. The International Sustainability Institute in Seattle began organizing music and art events to bring in people, which, in turn, cleaned-up the crime and garbage. As an urban development strategy, adjacent vacant storefronts re-opened for business and beautification could be seen in new gardens.

In 2013, Detroit filed for bankruptcy because of a poor economy. While the city’s industrial businesses have floundered, the art scene has thrived, bringing in new sources of income through art galleries and investments in contemporary art. This new art scene is one factor to measure Detroit’s recovery and prospects of growth for the future.

In the face of terror and war, art and history needed protection. A group of professors, activists, archeologists, and historians created a network to preserve and protect art and history in Syria.

In order to address dynamics that may keep a child from talking about traumatic experiences, a Mexico City-based child psychologist developed Antennas. Antennas is an animated character controlled and voiced by the psychologist who, as an alien, can ask basic questions about people and relationships. This approach has been effective for psychologists and use of Antennas has spread to the judicial system as well.

Eau Claire, Wisconsin, once a booming Midwestern industrial town, began to struggle after manufacturing plants closed, leading to job loss and blight downtown. However, recent years have shown urban renewal, and it is clear that arts saved the city. The proposed Confluence Arts Center has already led to $120 million in investment in the heart of Eau Claire’s downtown. Economic growth, further enhanced by the Eaux Claires Music Festival each year, has put the city on a path to revitalization.

To help develop the arts scene and also increase economic development in the North Shore area of Staten Island, one family formed a non-profit organization to renovate the St. George Theatre and build it up as a revitalized performing arts space. Since 2004 when the theatre was reopened, the area has seen economic growth, and data supports the idea that cities with arts and cultural resources make for healthier and happier communities.

The organization Working Artists and the Greater Economy (WAGE) works with non-profit arts organizations to establish fair payment for artists. WAGE established a fee structure for 15 categories of artistic labor with a sliding scale based on the organization’s total operating expenses. Organizations that adhere to the fee structure are WAGE ‘certified.’

The National Gallery of Art’s “Just Us” program brings seniors with memory loss symptoms to the museum for ‘meditation’ on paintings. Using the paintings as prompts, visitors are encouraged to react to and interpret what is before them mentally engaging them and providing an opportunity for socialization.

In Poland, artists have used a traditional tool to advocate for and obtain fair compensation: unionizing. While the artists’ union is not officially recognized by the state, it has successfully obtained better pay for artists from galleries and grant funders and led a 2012 strike.

In response to the low percentage of artists who are paid—even by large, prestigious museums—for exhibiting their work, the organization Working Artists and the Greater Economy (WAGE) advocates for fair pay for artists. This is done primarily by a “certification” program that calculates fair compensation for an artist based on the exhibiting institution’s operating budget and the type of labor executed by the artist.