Staying Strong as an Arts Community Through Crisis
Megan McGee, the executive director of Ex Fabula, was always on our guest list for the pod but given the unusual circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated global financial impacts and disruptions, we thought it would be a useful time to check in with how the leader of a small arts organization - and one whose mission is to connect people in real spaces to share stories - is dealing with social distancing.
We were lucky enough to get her into the studio on the day of a story slam, which Ex Fabula had decided to not cancel but to encourage distance between attendees, provide hand sanitizer, and live-stream the event on Facebook.
Megan shared some stories about how these disruptions will affect Ex Fabula, where almost 50% of their revenue is from earned streams (eg: workshops, corporate engagements, etc.), and how it is already affecting artists and people running small arts organizations who typically subsidize their organizations through their day and night gigs.
Even if large scale public events are not cancelled by the state or city, attendance at existing events may be lighter, which affects all links in the arts and entertainment supply chain and will have downstream effects on our friends and neighbors.
We're working quickly to build tools that will help those in Milwaukee's arts community affected by this pandemic. One piece of this is awareness building around the losses experienced by unprecedented event cancellations. We plan to pitch stories of individual artists and arts organizations affected to the media. If you would be willing to share your story, please e-mail Lindsay Sheridan, Director of Marketing and PR at lsheridan@imaginemke.org.
