In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, members of Vero’s arts and cultural community are using the creativity they are known for to connect with the public virtually – taking the show not on the road, but onto the World Wide Web.
Early March was a bewildering time for the arts and cultural organizations. They were at the height of their season, with planned theatrical and ballet performances, and a wide assortment of art exhibitions and shows. As late as March 6 the administration was saying the virus was contained, so the mandate one week later to cancel large gatherings was as unexpected as it was understandable.
Fortunately, though, many local arts organizations have found innovative ways to keep the arts afloat by presenting virtual entertainment to residents as they hunker down to stay safe.
Ballet Vero Beach presents “Clarity of Vision: The Film”
“We were down in Miami rehearsing for what was to be our Windsor program and also our collaboration with Atlantic Classical Orchestra (scheduled for March 26 and April 5, respectively). That was the Friday when everything went south really fast, when everything shut down,” recalls Adam Schnell, Ballet Vero Beach artistic director/CEO.
“We didn’t know what to do and I said, ‘OK, let’s take a breath.’ Clearly Windsor and the Atlantic Classical Orchestra collaboration were going to have to be postponed; possibly even till next season. But at that point there was still a shot that it would be fine by mid-April,” says Schnell.
Clarity of Vision, their season finale, had been scheduled to take place April 17 and 18 at the Vero Beach High School Performing Arts Center, featuring a world premier by choreographer Ariel Grossman, as well as pieces created by Schnell and by Ballet Master Camillo Rodriguez and the contemporary ballet company, konverjdans.
“But I just had that nagging voice in the back of my head, saying, ‘You better come up with a Plan B, C, D, E and F,’” says Schnell. “Because you just never know.”
Given the uncertainty of the situation, they spent about a week discussing their options and realized that for at least half of the pieces scheduled for the program, they already had rehearsal footage of the complete ballets.
Schnell says that their technical director, Lance Glenn, has always filmed short documentaries during rehearsals, which are traditionally played at the beginning of each show.
“He’s a phenomenal documentary filmmaker,” says Schnell. “Because we rehearse things so long before the production, we always make sure we film a run-through in the studio. So that very quickly became our Plan C.”
“So we can put together a behind-the-scenes documentary of as many of the pieces that were supposed to be performed as possible. That requires no human contact whatsoever; he and I can work over the Internet,” Schnell explains.
“Plan B, which at this point we still may execute, is getting at least some of the cast members together and going into a theater and filming it as if it was from the audience perspective from the best seat in the house. That way it still feels like a performance, but the cast is so small and our technical team is so small, it would still be under 10 people in the theater. We wouldn’t have an audience so it’s all within current guidelines.”
But with schools shut down, the overriding issue there is getting access to the VBHS Performing Arts Center. Another option may be to film the dancers performing the program in a nice studio rather than onstage. In the meantime, they have storyboarded a template that either film version could be dropped into.
“The experience is still going to be similar and we’re trying to make it as rich with extra content and interviews as possible. But the thing that I want to make sure is that whatever we do, that it is still of an artistic quality that Ballet Vero Beach can be proud of,” says Schnell.
“And working with Lance in this way, I know it’s going to be great. It will offer people who are interested in us, a sort of behind-the-scenes inside look that they wouldn’t get normally, and a glimpse of what the program would have been.”
Whatever form the film takes, a link to it, for viewing on your computer, will be emailed to ‘ticketholders’ at 7:30 p.m. April 18, and will remain online through April 25. People can purchase a virtual ‘ticket,’ or ‘tickets’ from their ticketing site; choosing from any of the ‘seats’ which, explains Schnell, “is really just a fancy way to say any price that they want.”
Additionally, Ballet Vero Beach regularly provides free performance tickets to 16 local nonprofits. Schnell says he has already notified them to expect the link, which they can share with their participants.
He is also sending information to the principals and teachers of the schools that would have been attending their free student matinees – they had expected upwards of 600 fourth-graders – asking them to forward the link to students.
“The Clarity of Vision: The Film” presentation will highlight Adam Schnell’s Ballade and the world premiere of Rust by Ariel Grossman.
Purchase a pay-what-you-like virtual ticket and a link to the film will be emailed to you at 7:30 p.m., April 18. Tickets, $10 to $75, are available at balletverobeach.org. They hope to update the ticket brokering site to offer on-sale dates from April 18-25.
If people have trouble buying tickets or have questions, they can call 772-905-2651.
Vero Beach Museum
of Art: Museum Extras
To comply with CDC recommendations, the Vero Beach Museum of Art closed its doors effective March 14 and created a COVID-19 task force, consisting of staff from a variety of divisions, to begin planning their options going forward, says Sophie Bentham-Wood, VBMA director of marketing and communications.
Among the issues to consider was how the temporary closure would affect the museum as an institution and how to develop ways to continue to connect with the community.
“How we were going to remain open, virtually, became a critical concept for us to consider. Finding ways that we could creatively bring the arts to our members and the community was one of the highest priorities for us, as well as, obviously, the safety of our staff,” says Bentham-Wood.
Adhering to CDC guidelines, staff is primarily working remotely, with a skeleton team in the building for security measures.
The task force conducted multiple webinars with other institutions in the industry, before designing and developing Museum Extras, which became accessible on their website March 30.
The objective, Bentham-Wood says, is “to give value to our members, patrons and art visitors to stay connected with us while we’re under this time of disconnection.”
Museum Extras is comprised of five categories, each with a curated schedule of contents that will be updated on a weekly basis.
Anke’s Art Minute is named for the museum’s new senior curator, Anke Van Wagenberg.
“She is going to be providing a series of weekly one-to two-minute videos highlighting works from our permanent collection, and other unique insights, as well as pieces from the Homer to Hopper Exhibition, which would normally have been on view for everybody to enjoy,” says Bentham-Wood.
“The exhibition was split into 10 different areas, and those 10 areas are exactly what she will go through, so that people can view the exhibit with her through a curatorial eye.”
Flick Picks, says Bentham-Wood, is designed “for those of us who love our film series and are missing the enlightening and social experiences of our film studies, which are usually on a Tuesday.”
Diane Thelen, VBMA film studies coordinator, will be recommending a series of films each week that are related to an artist or a period that correlate to the museum’s collections. Bentham-Wood notes that while some films will be available for viewing on their site, unfortunately, people will have to do their own searching to access some of the others.
Museum Stories is meant to replicate the activities they generally provide to their youngest audience, Wednesdays in the Art Zone.
“For our babies and toddlers we have a museum stories program, so this is now being virtually created for this particular audience,” Bentham-Wood explains. “We’re going to present a creative lesson plan, with suggestions of books and music and artmaking for babies and toddlers.”
Art Tutorials will offer short tutorials presented by the museum’s art school faculty.
“On a weekly basis, we’re going to be providing a little inspiration for people to sort of spark off their creativity, by providing a short art making tutorial from one of our museum faculty instructors,” says Bentham-Wood.
Museum Fun will be focused on a collection of fun social media activities.
“The majority are going to be museum-related photos from social media,” she explains. “We’ve been creating a variety of memes that we’ve shared on social media that are entertaining, as well as some tableaux on our Instagram and Facebook accounts, both of which people can follow. We’re also encouraging people to share their moments during this time as well and use the hashtag, #Museum Extras.”
Because Museum Extras content will be updated on a weekly basis, they encourage people to check back in on a regular weekly basis to see what’s new. People can also sign up to receive E-News notifications of updates or they can learn about them on Facebook and Instagram.
“I think that this is something that’s very interesting,” says Bentham-Wood. “We developed this as a museum experience for this crisis, but I think longer term it will open new avenues to us to be able to think about how people can enjoy and engage with us at the museum. It is something that we hadn’t necessarily explored as much before.”
The Museum Extras site is accessible to members and nonmembers alike. Visit vbmuseum.org for more information.