The arts. From painting to poetry, from dancing to drama, from acting to anecdotes, the arts add a bit of sparkle to our busy, workaday lives.

However, in this new world of social distancing, the interaction between artist and admirer has been dramatically changed. Gone (at least for the time being) are the days when one could saunter at a leisurely pace through an art gallery to admire a painting or sculpture, to watch a dramatic presentation or comedy on a local stage or to snap one’s fingers to the melodic compositions of a local singer or band. Even movie theaters have shut their doors.

With governmental decrees requiring people to stay at home, how can one get one’s artistic “fix”?

Casey Jones, marketing director for the Shreveport Regional Arts Council (SRAC), said, “The first thing we did, we had our annual Critical Mass exhibition and performance series kick off when the quarantine scare really kicked in here. So we had our performance night canceled. We still had performances, but we weren’t open to the public, and we videoed it. And then we had our exhibition open the next night and we announced the winners, but it wasn’t a party, so we kind of dialed everything real far back, but then the week after, we put everything online. … We put everything online for everybody who couldn’t come. So that was our first step we did was to make sure that all the work the artists had put into Critical Mass didn’t go unnoticed.”

FOR THE REST OF THE ARTICLE PUBLISHED IN THE April 17 ISSUE OF FOCUS SB - THE INQUISITOR, GO TO  https://www.theinquisitor.com/life/supporting-arts-social-distancing-society OR SUBSCRIBE TODAY AT http://www.theinquisitor.com