BBC Arts has launched a new intiative, 'Culture in Quarantine', a virtual festival of arts for the foreseeable future as the coronavirus pandemic forces concert halls, theatres and festivals to close. It will run across the BBC's radio, television and digital platforms.
The new initiative will include performances from musicians and comedians, new plays created for broadcast, author talks and guides to exhibitions at galleries which have been forced to close their doors. It also will broadcast quarantine diaries from artists and creatives, as well as archive broadcasts of theatre and dance performances.
Jonty Claypole, director of BBC Arts, described the current pandemic and its impact on the art world, saying, 'Historically, artists thrive on periods of isolation and it seems certain that the current period will result in new plays, poems, books, films, paintings, sculptures and all other forms of art that might not otherwise occur’.
