The legal profession is rethinking how it hears arguments and holds trials. The medical industry is rethinking tele-medicine and how it charges for services. The existential question for the arts is whether we continue with our under-performing non-profit model or design something new, says Douglas McLennan.
When everything shut down there was the panic of uncertainty. First, the virus is scary; it’s killing lots of people, and we don’t know enough about how it works and how it spreads. Fear of the unknown is the worst - my imagination can quickly go to dark places. But it turns out that there are plenty of amazing people in our midst - those you expect: medical workers and first responders, and those you might not have thought of: grocery clerks and bus drivers and many others - who heroically continue to perform essential jobs to keep us going.
As the shock set in and our public life shut down, survival instincts kicked in. For weeks, my email inbox has filled up with fundraising pleas. Our global arts supply chain went down overnight as theatres, concert halls, museums, bookstores, production studios, rehearsal facilities and support services shut down... Keep reading on Diacritical