Due to unprecedented situation of Carona Virus (COVID-19), while people in some sector are able to work remotely, there is halt for a lot of activities including cultarul activities. There are many people who rely solely on a specific art for their livelihood such as performing music concert, Harikatha, dance etc., Unfortunately, this situation will continue for a few more months, if not years hopefully.
There are a few ways that such artists can leverage using technologies and make their livelihood. Let’s discuss some ideas and hopefully help someone.
A few months ago, I have noticed series of cultural events hosted live by The Capital Area Telugu Association (US) to celebrate their 15th anniversary. They are hosting events on Saturday and Sunday that are live both on YouTube and Facebook. They have a mechanism where community can donate through their website.
Further, From beginning of July, Shri. Adhibatla Shri. Kalapeetam is hosting series of cultural events through live on its Founder Smt. Padala Kalyani’s Facebook feed. During July and August, nummber of events were hosted on Saturday and Sundays. In addition, music concerts were hosted on occasions of son of my brother’s birthday and our Son’s birthday. These events are streamed live to Facebook using Zoom. Each program, a honorarium is paid artists. Although amount paid is not a big amount and cannot match the worthy of their talent, that gives a token of appreciation and give artists an idea of how they can continue pursuing their passion.
Another idea that I have in mind is that local cable operators should stream performances of artists around them and people in that community/village/town/city can contribute and sponsor the events. This way, artists get work and income; cable operators get a good will. They can just stream for 60 minutes a day.
Now-a-days, internet is not very expensive so artists should make arrangements for broadband connections and a computer / laptop. This should be investment that they need to make. Though we hope that COVID situation will go away soon but it will still take sometime for organizations to host public performances.
We should leverage available resources and move on…
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