BBC Culture in Quarantine: Webinar
With arts venues and practices closing almost universally
across the world due to the lockdown, the nation needed a platform to celebrate
and strengthen creativity. Springing up as if by magic, the BBC Culture in
Quarantine programme answered this call. Now there exists a digital site where
you can access Shakespeare, poetry, art workshops, and brand new filmed
content. I attended a webinar last week as part of the BBC’s ‘Digital Cities’
Festival,[1]
and got the chance to hear from Jonty Claypole: the director of BBC Arts, and
the man behind this life-changing project.
Hosted by networker Helga Henry, this online talk and Q&A
focused on how Culture in Quarantine was set up, and its implications for the
future of the arts industry. Claypole explained that the BBC acted in response
to Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s announcement that cultural venues would be
closed for the foreseeable future. His initial reaction was to consider the
‘lethal’ impact that this would have on the cultural sector, as even a month’s
closure could drive an organisation out of business. The BBC has a protocol for
national emergencies, yet this provided a unique situation, one where arts industries
needed vital coverage in order to stay afloat.
In times of national crisis, we need to ‘feel as if we are
part of something bigger than ourselves’, Claypole stated. He worked to develop
a platform that would ensure public participation in culture, and support the
wider sector as they faced financial devastation. Working rapidly, the team
repurposed their Arts Digital Site and linked it with anything currently going
on within the arts world. To me this seems a wonderfully democratic way of
providing arts coverage, allowing people to choose from a multitude of sources,
giving the message that all are equally valid.
This is a refreshing approach within the arts industry,
which in the past has been guilty of adopting an elitist framework. Instead,
this project considered those most in need of financial support, such as
freelancers and emerging art companies, and allocated them support from the
Culture in Quarantine fund. Not the BBC support established work, but also
encouraged new responses to the ever-changing situation. Reactionary pieces of
theatre began to emerge, which Claypole described as ‘making sense of COVID
existentially’, just as medical professionals were working out their response
scientifically.
Less mainstream art forms also gained prominence, such as
dance, with pieces emerging like the exceedingly popular ‘Swan Lake in the
Bath.’[2]
This short video saw ballet professionals from around the world filming
themselves in the bath using their iPhones, performing choreographed sequences.
The video gained over 6 million views, blending social media and classical
dance to create something truly revolutionary.
In fact, Claypole argued that this home-made aesthetic
brought an informality to the arts that generally led to greater participation.
Audiences could now see world-renowned artists creating work from their home
studios, or attend a life-drawing class filmed in a domestic setting. This caused
an exciting discovery that art need not necessarily be typically highbrow or formally
staged- it could be more effective when stripped-back.
In addition to relatively simple home projects, creatives
also overcame huge obstacles to deliver content. Claypole explained that the
‘Museums in Quarantine’ series allowed just one single camera operator to film
inside institutions, with an art historian writing the accompanying script.
This meant collaboration to the extreme: and having to work across physical
distance as well as creative disciplines.
The latter section of the webinar focused on how the
platform would move forward, as restrictions ease and the public engagement
with online arts shifts. Generally, the project showed that the public are more
interested in participating in the arts than previously anticipated, yet it
must be presented in a certain way. In this case, Culture in Quarantine found
that informal styles of art tended to be more popular, but Claypole added that
this may not always be the case. He stressed the importance of adapting to each
new situation, and that ‘monologues on phones’ may have run their course for
the time being.
During the Q&A, I asked Claypole whether he thought that
the availability of free content would affect how much people would be willing
to pay for the arts. Optimistically, he suggested that providing work for free
actually increases the public’s ‘appetite’, bringing in people who may not
typically engage in the arts, and making them willing to pay more. This seemed
to fit in with my own personal experience: after weeks of watching theatre
online I rushed to the cinemas for the National Theatre Live series when it
became available.
The webinar left me with an overwhelmingly positive feeling
and a reassurance that art is here to stay. Whether creatives are producing
work via zoom, organising socially distanced performance settings, or hosting
interactive workshops, there will always room for art in our lives, and in our
hearts. Culture in Quarantine reminded us of that.
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