One-On-One Corona-Concerts Are Now Spreading Through Germany

Last month, a few musicians in Stuttgart began giving intimate-yet-socially-distanced performances — one performer, one listener, a couple of meters of empty space between them — at the city’s currently-unused airport. Now two of the area’s publicly-funded orchestras, the Staatsorchester Stuttgart and the Southwest German Radio Symphony, have taken on the project. “The result has been an intense series of more than 1,100 encounters — first in Stuttgart, and now in five other German cities. And what began as a clever adaptation to coronavirus rules has since become something more profound — a means of establishing human connection, agency and meaning at a time when such concepts have been harder to foster.” – The New York Times

Bail-Outs For The Arts Aren’t Enough

Virus impacts aren’t a short-term blip for the funded arts to be ameliorated by nifty footwork, strategised centrally and ‘top down’ in the coteries of arts power. Short-term bail-outs are insufficient for the enormity of the task. No amount of skilled fundraising and better marketing technique will save the plethora of slow-moving, risk-averse arts organisations in the recessionary world ahead. – Arts Professional