In an effort to keep my artistic and cultural life alive I’ve gathered together some resources that I can enjoy whilst isolated from the art communities I love. Whilst the prospect of a Netflix binge is fine I think I shall need some wider art and culture in my life – plus some practical things to do away from a screen.
1. Watch ‘Wind In The Willows’
In the midst of the coronavirus outbreak, the producers of the West End production of ‘The Wind in the Willows’ will stream the show online for free, though ask for a small donation that will be given to theatre charities.
https://www.willowsmusical.com
2. Virtual Museum Tours
Hundreds of Museums and simply thousands of works of art and culture to explore. Lose days wandering around virtual museums:
https://artsandculture.google.com/partner
3. Draw with Rob
The amazing Rob Biddulph has online drawing classes and so much more on his website to keep children of all ages amused – share your work with the hashtag #drawwithrob
http://www.robbiddulph.com/draw-with-rob
4. Virtual Choirs
The Sofa Singers is a weekly session bringing people together to learn and sing as a virtual choir:
https://www.thesofasingers.net
Also check out:
https://ericwhitacre.com/the-virtual-choir
5. Get into Opera
If it’s something you’ve always been meaning to do or already your passion OperaVision has put a raft of world class operas online for free:
There is also a list of other free theatre productions to stream here:
Free Theatre Productions to Stream
6. Unit Twelve – Jennifer Collier craft make
The fabulous Jennifer Collier has put up a free online resource to a craft project. You can share your efforts using the hashtag.
http://unittwelve.co.uk/freemakes.htm
7. Creative Writing
Want to buff up your writing skills or put down on paper that novel that’s just bursting to get out. Here are a list of free online writing courses from one page brush ups to full four week creative writing courses:
8. Learn an instrument
Still got that guitar or ukulele hanging around that you always promised yourself you’d learn. Now’s the ideal time:
Guitar tuition: https://beginnerguitarhq.com/best-online-guitar-lessons/
Ukulele tuition: Free 10 Day course – https://youtu.be/5bTE5fbxDsc
9. Relax and Listen to Culture
We will all need to find ways to relax and relieve the stress of being cooped up so here is The Art Newspapers top culture podcast list:
https://www.theartnewspaper.com/feature/top-podcasts
You can combine a couple of these podcasts with the Virtual Museum Tours above to add some richness to everything that being discussed….