Orange County NC Website
North Carolina’s <br />“stay at home” order <br />(Executive Order <br />117) had a profound <br />impact on the arts <br />sector. Describe the <br />specific steps your <br />organization took to <br />comply with <br />Executive Order 117. <br />We had to cancel all our main events for the year, especially our 4- <br />day summer program and all its ancillary events, which included a <br />regency ball at the Century Center, an afternoon tea at the Carolina <br />Inn, an art exhibit and tour at the Ackland Museum, and A rare book <br />exhibit at Wilson library, as well as the 4-day conference itself at the <br />Hampton Inn (janeaustensummer.org). We postponed our entire <br />schedule hoping to hold it in 2021. <br />We also had to cancel all the in-person public library book groups the <br />we had planned (Jane Austen & Co: janeaustenandco.org). We are <br />proud of the opportunities that we created instead. We created a <br />webinar series called "Staying Home with Jane Austen," that has had <br />8 events so far. We have brought in top notch speakers and <br />scholars via zoom on a variety of domestic and literary arts, as well <br />as writers of adaptations. Each webinar has attracted between 400- <br />600 people to sign up from around the world. And about 50% of those <br />signed up attend each live webinar. We record each one and provide <br />it for free on the website. Attending these webinars is also free and <br />open to the public, even though we do pay our speakers and there <br />are various costs associated with putting the webinar on. We are <br />already planning our next two series: "Winter holidays with Austen <br />and Dickens," for which we would like to hire some of our regular <br />musicians and actors, and then "Race in the Regency," paying <br />attention to lesser-understood and neglected aspects of Austen's <br />period. We have lined up some high profile speakers for this. <br />All of our programs feature a public Q&A, allowing viewers to <br />participate in real time. To increase viewer engagement during these <br />difficult times, we have also started a creative writing contest, <br />offering books and mugs as rewards. The creative writing contest <br />features categories for middle school, high school, and adult <br />submissions. Prompts ask writers to imagine an Austen heroine’s <br />daily life through themes such as dressing, crafting, and gaming. The <br />winning submissions are posted to our website following the contest. <br />Events have included Food, Family and Identity with Sonali Dev and <br />Soniah Kamal; Crafting with Jane Austen; and an upcoming <br />discussion with author Jo Baker. Viewers have come from places as <br />far away as Australia and Israel. Our speakers have come from the <br />US, UK, and Australia. Future events include Gardening with Jane <br />Austen (November 5), Upstairs, Downstairs: A Discussion with Author <br />Jo Baker (November 18), and holiday themed December programs, <br />which are still being planned. <br />Part of designing this new online program meant redesigning our <br />online platform and social media presence. Thanks to this new <br />redesign, participants can now register for events directly through <br />our website and receive their Zoom link directly. This includes more <br />refined email marketing and social media advertising. Because of the <br />loss of conference revenue, however, we had to cancel several <br />scheduled events and were unable to pay the directors fees that we <br />planned. <br />DocuSign Envelope ID: 88C0949C-F7C6-47D4-8832-A8CDDEFA33A0