The Arts in Lockdown

The Arts in Lockdown

In lockdown, the arts have proved crucial to the well-being of individuals, of the nation and of global communities. They have formed the point of connection that has enabled us to gather around a shared cultural experience in way that combat isolation; they have been a diversion from anxiety, a means of channeling anxiety and a joyful tonic in tough times. And even while theatres, cinemas, galleries and museums have necessarily been closed, there has been a flowering of the arts in online forms, with companies and organisations eager to reach and connect with their audiences and visitors (past and future). 

In this conversation, Professor Judith Buchanan (Master of St Peter’s College, Oxford) and Professor John Wyver (Director of Screen Productions for the Royal Shakespeare Company) will discuss their own experiences of the arts in lockdown, of some of the inventive ways in which these have been produced and accessed, and some of the wider issues of the urgency, pertinence and need for the arts that the moment has crystallised.