Stuck At Home And Looking For A Dose Of Art And Culture? There’s A Virtual Solution For That!

On Friday, March 13, in response to the developing situation with the novel coronavirus, Terrie Sultan, director of the Parrish Art Museum, announced that as of 6 p.m. that evening, the museum would be closed to the public and all programs canceled until further notice.

“We care deeply for our community, and the health and safety of all our members and friends is of utmost importance to us,” said Sultan. “We firmly believe that the arts provide the opportunities for inspiration, contemplation, and connection that feed our souls and raise our spirits. In challenging times, the arts are even more important.”

In recent days, it's been pretty much the same story at every the other East End cultural institution — doors shut for now, programming canceled while we ride this thing out.

While museums may be physically shuttered, we can be thankful for the fact that we live in the digital age. That means there are still several opportunities for the community to engage with our favorite artists and arts organizations online.

Here are a few:

The Parrish Art Museum:

Artist Stories: A section of the Parrish website that offers a deep dive into the life and work of artists on the East End

http://parrishart.org/artist-stories/#/

Parrish Podcasts: A new podcast series presenting conversations on emerging trends, artist projects, and cultural issues.

https://parrishart.org/media

Pechakucha: The popular program featuring rapid-fire talks by East End creatives is now accessible to all on the Pechakucha website

https://www.pechakucha.com/cities/hamptons

Videos: Nearly 400 videos of Parrish programs are available on Vimeo — from the opening of the museum in 2012 until today.

https://vimeo.com/parrishartmuseum

Over the course of the next several days, the Parrish will announce a range of additional initiatives to ensure that anyone anywhere can continue to enjoy the masterworks from the collection and other means of continuing a vital and replenishing experience.

Southampton Arts Center:

At this point, the galleries at the Southampton Arts Center (SAC) will be closed through March 29 with all public programs canceled through April 12.

But patrons can still interact virtually through the Southampton Arts Center’s YouTube channel.

There, you will find a 45-minute virtual tour of the current exhibition “TAKEOVER!” led by artistic director Amy Kirwin.

In addition, the channel also features video interviews with some of the 10 “TAKEOVER!” artists who have turned SAC into personal studio spaces.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC15hjVSH-3n8dQ43KNocFrg/videos

Guild Hall:

Though Guild Hall in East Hampton has closed its doors and canceled all programming through March 31, patrons can still interact with the museum from their own computers via “Live From Guild Hall.”

On Monday, March 16, Guild Hall hosted its first ever interactive YouTube Premiere. Guests are encouraged to join in for a gallery talk about the museum's "82nd Artist Members Exhibition" with Museum Mondays: Curatorial Assistant's Choice with Casey Dalene.

By joining the digital premiere, guests were able to ask questions and make comments to staff during the talk. The video is now permanently available on Guild Hall's YouTube Channel.

During this time of uncertainty Guild Hall will continue providing cultural programming to patrons by livestreaming select content like gallery tours or past discussions and events held in the John Drew Theater.

Some of the other options available online now include:

Stirring the Pot: Conversations with Culinary Celebrities hosted by Florence Fabricant with special guest Chef Tom Colicchio

Gallery Talk with Joan Marter, curator of the 2019 exhibition "Abstract Expressionism Revisited: Selections from the Guild Hall Museum Permanent Collection."

Melissa Errico sings Stephen Sondheim’s "Losing My Mind" from her concert performance of Sondheim Sublime.

The page will be updated regularly with other offerings.

https://www.guildhall.org/

Live music with Nancy Atlas:

Nancy Atlas and her band are not planning to play shows for the next two to three months. But Atlas has announced that she plans to offer free live acoustic shows in the storyline on her Instagram account. The first one is scheduled for March 21 at 8 p.m.

Neo-Political Cowgirls:

For young artists in the throes of isolation, the East Hampton-based dance and theater company Neo-Political Cowgirls (NPC) is inviting college students who have been uprooted from their studies by COVID-19 to make and submit a new work in response to these unexpected life circumstances.

All genres are welcome, including dance, theater, spoken word, film and music. Works will eventually be curated into projects for possible presentations or live events at universities, galleries and theaters.

Submissions and inquiries should be sent to npcowgirls@gmail.com via self-video of the work and also in written form if the submitted genre requires it.

"Channel your art into storytelling, reflection, discovery and processing," advised Kate Mueth, NPC's founder. "Talk about what you need to talk about. This may or may not have COVID in its thrust of ideas."

Submission deadline is currently April 30, but may change, depending on the circumstances. Send any questions to Kate at npcowgirls@gmail.com

Local libraries:

Libraries across the South Fork are closed for the time being, but their Facebook pages and websites have many suggestions for utilizing on online services, including downloading ebooks and audiobooks, streaming movies or browsing magazines through services like Overdrive, Kanopy, Hoopla and Flipster. On the East Hampton Library's website, you can even explore the huge Digital Long Island Collection of historic images and documents.

Here are the library websites:

Quogue: https://www.quoguelibrary.org/

Westhampton: https://westhamptonlibrary.net/

Hampton Bays: http://hamptonbayslibrary.org/

Southampton: https://www.myrml.org/

Bridgehampton: https://www.myhamptonlibrary.org/

Sag Harbor: https://www.johnjermain.org/

East Hampton: http://easthamptonlibrary.org/

Amagansett: https://amagansettlibrary.org/

Montauk: https://montauklibrary.org/

Shelter Island: https://www.shelterislandpubliclibrary.org/