2021-615-E-Arts Commission-The ArtsCenter-Restart the Arts

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Please explain measures taken by your organization to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. W ith the initial onset of COVID-19, we closed our building. Howev er, as our knowledge of the v irus and how it is spread expanded, we offered some programming with safety protocols in place. To meet the needs of families in our community on whom CV-19 has had the most significant impact, in Summer 2020 we ran a scaled- back in-person Summer ArtsCamp program for 440 children ov er a 9- week period. Upon arriv al, the campers’ and the staff members’ temperatures were taken and hand sanitizer was prov ided. All campers and staff wore masks and socially distanced. The camps hosted in the larger studio spaces held a maximum of 8 campers per session. Our smaller rooms accommodated 5 campers. This year, as the spread was less prolific, we increase our numbers and allowed 10-12 campers in our larger spaces and increased our offerings. Howev er, we continued to require temperature checks and masks. Both for last summer and this, if a camper was exhibiting any signs of illness, we asked that they be tested before returning to camp. For both 2020 and 2021, to the best of our knowledge, we had no camper test positiv e. Since the local schools were operating remotely for the 2020-2021 school year, our Afterschool Arts Immersion was cancelled. Howev er, with the return to in-person learning for the 2021-2022 school year, we are running this program again but with smaller numbers, about a 30% reduction in students. W ith this program, we are also requiring temperature checks and masks. W ith the shutdown, we ended our in-person performances and began streaming productions. For example, with the support of OCAC, OCCRC and Free Spirit Freedom, TAC presented HAUNTED by playwright and actor Sonny Kelly in which Kelly takes on the v oices of historians, ancestors, elders, youths, politicians, pundits, and poets, as he traces the roots and routes of modern day anti-Black v iolence in America. For ArtSchool, we offered mostly online classes to keep our patrons safe. Patrons zoomed in for Improv classes, writing classes and drawing. W e hav e a few types of classes, such as painting and jewelry making where in-person with social distancing is possible. Ceramic artists are allowed to fire and glaze work they created at home. W e expanded our cleaning serv ices and inv ested in PPE. W e inv ested in Zoom and hav e hosted most of our board and staff meeting online. In June we hosted our first in-person board meeting as well as staff meeting. Howev er, we, as a staff, still regularly schedule online meetings as opposed to meeting in-person. To encourage marginalized populations to get COVID v accinations, we forged a new partnership with Day One Relief, a NC-Triangle-based non-profit organization which was founded to serv e under-resourced and marginalized communities affected by hurricanes and other disasters. The ArtsCenter inv ited North Carolina-based artists to design a COVID-19 Vaccine poster to prov ide v accination information in frontline communities in North Carolina. The goal was to create poster designs that would speak to populations that hav e been hesitant to receiv e v accinations. DocuSign Envelope ID: 86DFF302-0F1D-453E-9078-02BDC6F3549C