During the Month of October Arts Alive is collecting stories from performing arts organizations across the Monadnock Region to ask - how are you holding up? This is the first of three stories this month that will highlight the innovations, inspiration, hope, and connection these organizations are still fostering, even in difficult times. We start with Keene State College’s Redfern Arts Center.
Tell me about your organization? What inspires your staff/faculty to do what you do? How are you fulfilling your mission these days?
The Redfern Arts Center at Keene State College is a performing arts center in Keene that offers multidisciplinary performances, student and faculty productions, and community engagement programs for the campus and Monadnock region. We have just started our 39th season- a mix of hybrid and virtual events- and we’re learning as we go. Like so many arts organizations, we’re in new territory.
Typically we would plan a complete performance season, we’d have the various engagement activities and collaborations plotted out ahead of time; this year is anything but typical. There are so many moving parts and decisions to make to uphold COVID safety precautions. Having said that, what inspires us is the learning process- the chance for faculty to reconnect with students in the classroom, the power that art has to foster social connections, and provide a balm to people in these uncertain times. That is what keeps us going and drives us to reach out to our audiences to share what adaptation and resilience look like for us at the Redfern. Since we cannot open our doors to the public we are grounding our community interface in virtual programming, and exploring more behind-the-scenes content through video and a new podcast series to expand our cultural offerings.
How has your day to day changed in the last 6 months? Is that impacting the creative work you do?
Constant change, and having so many unknowns, is what marks the day to day operations for us. It’s a different way of working- we are still attempting to plan ahead but there are various contingency plans built into all of our decisions. It slows down the process. We have a lot of “wait and see” baked into our season. We didn’t know if we would even be open to the public until mid-summer, we’ve had to push off contracts and coordination of artist residencies, and we don’t know yet whether we can bring any of the scheduled season artists to campus in the spring. The entire season is marked with the sense of being “off schedule.” So, we are having ongoing conversations with artists and collaborators to adjust engagement plans and see what’s possible. It involves a good deal of patience, trust, humor, and the need to (continuously) reset expectations. We all miss live performance and are so eager for when we can safely come together in person. In the meantime, it is encouraging to witness and support the various ways people adapt and create even with the limitations and obstacles in their path. As an example, this October the KSC Combined Choirs performed in a Gazebo in a park in the city of Keene, and the KSC Theatre and Dance production is shifted from a staged production to a dance film entitled Brangelina.
In both cases, the directors have to adjust repertoire and choreography- but are making it work, and are even excited by the new directions opening up for each work, the participants and audiences. Normally we would invite the community to participate in engagement activities with artists through our Creative Connections program, but since we cannot bring artists physically to campus this semester we’re exploring the creative process through other means, via our new podcast series Inside the Redfern, in which we’ll invite the different voices and perspectives of faculty, students, artists, and cultural practitioners to share how they are adapting during the pandemic.
What is the biggest realization you've had about the Redfern in the last 6 months?
We see a strong hunger and gratitude for performance, for people to experience some kind of live event. With so many schools and cultural organizations halting their programs for the semester and/or year, we are unique in that we are still presenting performances and providing means for audiences to access them. This feels like the best way we can fulfill our mission at this moment. Artists and creative workers are so well positioned and skilled to contribute positively to recovery efforts following the pandemic. Art fosters social connection, dialogue, and community development. This underscores the value of what we are doing at the Redfern- innovating, responding, reimagining and learning will help us all be more resilient in the future.
Best case scenario, how does your organization survive, thrive, and prosper in the next year? What does that look like?
This year we will continue engaging with our campus and the local community with virtual, hybrid programs. We need to scale and pare back to what’s necessary right now- we’re trying to meet people where they are, follow their cues, and incorporate feedback and learning about how this year is going into our future plans. We’re promoting Redfern programming through a public and community health lens, integrating our efforts with campus-wide initiatives. I think the more familiar we can become with all the change required of us in this period, the more responsive and creative we can be with the opportunities that open up for us. In the arts and culture sector, we need to ensure that creative workers and creative organizations are recognized and integrated into more facets of civic life and recovery efforts.
What is it that you need right now? And what is a place where folks can go to learn more?
COVID is a major interruption and challenge to how we operate, but we should treat it as a creative pause and a learning opportunity. We don’t have the answers or a set path forward, but this time affords us a chance to invest in new methods for exploring programming, engagement, and communication. One way to help us is simply to connect with us- share what’s on your mind, show up, explore with us. We need to remain connected to each other. We’re continuously updating our website www.keene.edu/arts/redfern and we’re on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube @RedfernArtsCenter.