Cultural events are being canceled amid the coronavirus. So what?

Countless art institutions, museums and galleries have been temporarily shuttered. The Louvre in Paris, which houses the famous “Mona Lisa,” is closed until further notice. A blockbuster exhibition marking the 500th anniversary of the death of Italian Renaissance painter Raphael was suspended just days after opening in Rome.

Tourists read a sign informing of the closing of the Louvre museum on March 13, 2020 in Paris, France. Credit: Chesnot/Getty Images

Of course, such closures can seem immaterial compared to the public health crisis posed by Covid-19 and its rising death toll. People are getting sick; they are worrying about how to stay safe, access care, look after loved ones or stay in work.

But culture, even during the most extraordinary of times, should not be overlooked. Rather, it should be embraced as means for respite, escape and nourishment. For a brief moment, you can lose yourself in the brushstrokes of a centuries-old painting or feel completely immersed at a live concert.

At a time when misinformation, polarization and blatant hate are particularly confounding, culture can be humanizing and educational. It’s an alternative means by which to digest an increasingly complex and anxiety-fueled world.

Financial costs, lost opportunities

Cancellations don’t solely affect ticket holders, but entire ecosystems built around an event.

Visitors viewing an artwork by Chiharu Shiota at 2019’s Art Basel in Hong Kong. For the 2020 fair edition, exhibitiors showed works via online viewing rooms. Credit: Theodore Kaye/Getty Images

“This is not the moment where we completely redefine what we do. We are selling unique objects to individual people, and it’s a market which is based on trust not only on the part of the buyer, but also the seller,” he said of the invaluable relationships built when deals are made in person.

“I hope that galleries have the time and focus to really think about how to digitally market what they are doing — we’ll help them with that. And in a sense, the fair business will continue, but people will have learned how to ‘play’ digital to … supplement the business that isn’t happening and hasn’t been happening for a long time in the gallery spaces themselves.”

While big players can likely sustain one-off cancelations, smaller businesses and young talent may be hit hardest. That’s where intangibles, like missed opportunities, come in.

Los Angeles-based filmmaker Nicole Riegel, said the SXSW cancellation was “devastating.”

Festivals are where “you get that special premiere moment, you get exposure, you get interviews, you get audiences … there’s a lot of work that can come your way,” she added.

“There’s so much that’s unknown at the moment, but the rug was pulled out from under us when it was supposed to be our launchpad.”

Actress Jessica Barden stars in Nicole Riegel’s film “Holler.” The young protagonist joins a dangerous scrap metal crew in order to pay her way to college. Credit: Level Forward

The movie was five years in the making and cost $1 million to produce. “My film touches upon the reality of young girls who live in these towns across America and are slipping through the cracks of a fractured system that feels very rigged against them,” she explained.

She describes “panic” in the industry, particularly among first-time filmmakers who are seeking other distribution channels, such as online streaming platforms, in lieu of screening at the festival. But that’s not an option for Riegel.

“Everyone on ‘Holler’ worked too hard,” she said. “I won’t … throw it online for free. That’s insulting to the work of my cast and crew.”

Rethinking models, new innovation

With large gatherings put on hold, creatives are finding inventive ways to engage virtually.

Kari Kola’s artwork “Savage Beauty” turns the mountains of Connemara emerald and blue. Credit: Christopher Lund

“The combination of these disastrous scenarios for the planet, including the pandemic, is causing people to rethink what has become, in the last decade, a manic habit of participating in fairs that can amount to two a month if you are a large gallery,” she said. “Is it worth the exhaustion, the travel, the carbon footprint?

“Being someone who has habitually gone to all of them, I can also say it’s exhausting as a curator and consumer who is building a collection for the museums that I work with … I think (the pandemic) is an interesting reminder that we all did our jobs pretty well before this kind of travel and cultural expectation set in.”

Bohan Qiu, who heads communications consultancy Boh Project, is working with labels to stage shows and present their collections virtually. Some of these will be elaborate, with computer-generated models walking against surreal backdrops. “People aren’t caving in,” said Qiu. “Everyone is doing something different, or experimental. It’s a huge learning curve.”

Younger designers, and those fluent in digital marketing, may have the advantage. “Right now, bigger brands are starting to suffer. They never really had this mindset (of having to go digital). But smaller brands, who are used to working with lower costs and building a strong presence, already know how to live-stream super well, and make a message on (platforms such as) Little Red Book, WeChat and Tik Tok,” Qiu said, of the “flattened” playing field.

“We have five senses. If you’re close to (art), even drawings or sculptures, you can smell the paint. This is our principle, and we won’t change this part,” said teamLab’s communications director, Takashi Kudo, who is looking forward to art spaces safely reopening.

In the meantime, he continues his “task” as an artist — to create, even in difficult times. “I can’t just sit down and be hopeless. I think what’s more important, at least as an artist, is to seek out and affirm an idealistic part of humanity, and present an idea of the future.”

Top image caption: In Dresden, bronze figures in front of the Julius Otto monument symbolically wear face masks.