Arts&Life

trips from home, activities for 
seniors and highlighting our 
community partners. In many 
cases, our online engagement is 
higher than what we experience 
for in-person programs, and I 
foresee offering both options to 
our community in the future,
” 
Salort-Pons says.
Recognizing that not every-
one has internet access, the 
DIA has distributed printed 
art-making project instruc-
tions in Forgotten Harvest’
s 
food distribution boxes, which 
reach 18,000 residents of the 
tri-county area weekly.

OPERA AT HOME
Michigan Opera Theatre 
reports that like many other 
theaters, it is facing the finan-
cial challenges of lost ticket 
revenue, including ticket 
refunds for canceled perfor-
mances. MOT had to cancel 
most of its spring season, which 
included three operas as well 
as dance performances by the 
Dance Theatre of Harlem and 
American Ballet Theatre, both 
of which were expected to sell 
out. 
As a substitute for its planned 
live operas, dance and other 
musical concerts, MOT is offer-
ing MOT at Home — an exten-
sive array of performances, 
interviews and educational pro-
grams for children and adults 
using Facebook, Instagram and 
Twitter. Preview performance 
talks are offered before nightly 
livestreamed operas. “We hope 
that the digital performanc-
es and informative contact 
of ‘
MOT at Home’
 may be a 
source of inspiration, comfort 
and hope,
” states Wayne Brown, 
MOT’
s CEO, on its website.

AUDIENCE SUPPORT 
Unlike the DIA, DSO and 
MOT, the Chamber Music 

Society of Detroit (CMSD) 
does not own a building, nor 
does it maintain an orchestra 
or large staff. As a chamber 
music presenter, it rents space 
for concerts at the Seligman 
Performing Arts Center, part 
of the Country Day School 
Campus in Beverly Hills, which 
closed in March.
The Chamber Music Society 
was established in 1944 by Dr. 
Karl Haas, a pianist and radio 
music educator whose family 
left Germany in 1936. Many 
CMSD subscribers and donors 
are members of the local Jewish 
community.
Audience support was 
quickly evident when CMSD’
s 
concert series was canceled 
due to COVID-19; 60 percent 
of its subscribers donated the 
value of their tickets back to 
the organization. After the can-
cellations, a series of original 
online concerts was developed 
to connect with its audience 
and help musicians, explains 
Willa Walker, CMSD vice pres-
ident. CMSD then recruited 
collaborating presenters at vari-
ous levels of support for the live 
webcasts. Each participating 
musician receives an honorar-
ium.
According to CMSD, the 
streamed series of seven con-
certs has attracted almost 
40,000 views with an average 
concert audience of 5,700. 
Viewer contributions for the 
musicians, as of May 18, total 
$5,790.
While the CMSD doesn’
t 
have the overhead of larger cul-
tural institutions, the pandemic 
resulted in lost revenue and 
uncertainty about the future. 
“To sustain our mission, we 
have applied for grants from 
the National Endowment for 
the Arts and the Community 
Fund for Southeast Michigan. 

We are looking at different 
scenarios for 2020-21,
” Walker 
says.
The future holds many 
unknowns for these cultural 
institutions, as it does for other 
components of society during 
this pandemic. 
“There is a great deal of 
uncertainty about what the 
future holds, and preparing 
for that wide range of possible 
scenarios, both from a financial 
standpoint and a staff and vis-
itor health standpoint, is chal-
lenging,
” Salort-Pons says. 
The DIA has engaged NSF 
International (a nonprofit 
public health and safety organi-
zation based in Ann Arbor) to 
develop policies and operating 
procedures for staff and visitors 
when the museum can reopen 
and is coordinating its efforts 
with neighboring cultural insti-
tutions in Midtown.
DIA staff expects that when 
the museum is able to safely 
reopen, some elements may 
need to be changed, such as its 
interactive features that require 
personal touch. Also, the num-
ber of visitors at any one time 
will be limited.
The DSO hasn’
t decided yet 
about its fall season. “There 
needs to be a feeling of security. 
A packed house seems unlike-
ly,
” Parsons says. “Uncertainties 
are something we will all have 
to get comfortable with — 
there are so many variables,
” 
she adds. 

DONATE OR FIND ONLINE PROGRAMMING

Chamber Music Society of Detroit: Chambermusicdetroit.org

Detroit Institute of Art: DIA.org

Detroit Symphony Orchestra: DSO.org, DSO.org/keepplaying and 

DSO.org/replay 

Michigan Opera Theater: Motopera.org

 JUNE 4 • 2020 | 33

MOT CEO Wayne Brown 

MOT FACEBOOK

CMSD Vice President Willa Walker

COURTESY OF WILLA WALKER

DSO Chairman Mark Davidoff, incoming 
Music Director Jader Bignamini and 
President and CEO Anne Parsons

SARAH SMARCH

