Theater major Samantha Streit ’22 reflects on her senior project, a one-woman show titled This Green Plot Shall Be Our Stage, which she will perform April 14–16 at the Duke Gardens. The show centers on the idea that nature—in particular, the forest—acts as a metaphorical place of potential, freedom, and magic in Shakespeare’s works.

Lockdown poses many hurdles for artists, but it has not stopped Duke student filmmakers from making new work. In times of uncertainty, trust, working at smaller scales, and being true to yourself are essential.

Sophia Roth '22 shares her first original single written during the winter break contemplating what it means to be in a place during the pandemic.

Gianluca Corinaldesi started his position at Duke just three weeks before COVID stay at home orders. Learning to play the piano with his sons has brought joy to the Corinaldesi family home. "[It] puts me in a good mood like few other things," he reflects.

Sofia Zymnis '21 shares a project started as a pseudo-autobiographical documentation of her own experience during lockdown that has now developed into a constantly-growing website, inviting people to share their own balcony community in order to grow a shared virtual one.

Jonathan Homrighausen, PhD '23, shares a calligraphic piece, "Heaven's Roof," inspired by the relationship to home during COVID-19.

Christine Doeg '87 shares the documentary film she produced called One Vote. This film captures the compelling stories of diverse Americans on Election Day 2016.

Brittany J. Green, Duke PhD student in Music Composition, shares "Connected," a short piece for viola, piano, and fixed media inspired by paradoxical feelings of isolation and mediated connectedness that many have experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I'm excited to see what we'll create together. I'm excited to join you in rising to the challenges that we face and moving through them together."—John V. Brown, JD, Vice Provost for the Arts

"Dance reminds you and teaches you the infinite nuances of life.  Excitement and joy in life is not limited to the big bangs, the major earthquakes; it is also the light brush of grief or the gentle awareness of beauty.  Dance can teach, or reteach, us what that means," says Barbara Dickinson, Emerita Dance Faculty.

A new collection documenting our coronavirus spring by the MFA in Experimental and Documentary Arts community.

Vice Provost for the Arts Scott Lindroth reflects for the ongoing "Art and Artists Are Essential" series, writing: "One thing that I feel more urgently than ever before is the importance of making your own work. It brings us back to ourselves."

Duke faculty teaching visual arts, music, and theater share how they navigated the move to online teaching. It wasn’t easy. Supplies were mailed, collaborative projects were reinvented. Transformations and solutions discovered this spring have expanded the teaching repertoire—even as we look forward to safely returning to studio and stage.

Sarah Wilbur, assistant professor of the practice of dance, was teaching seminars on collaborative performance and valuing labor in the arts—just as the arts world entered a period of unforeseen challenges.

James Budinich, a PhD candidate in Music Composition, is giving a talk with his artistic collaborator, Gabrielle Lamb, on creating work together, from a distance. James reflects on the strategies that helped them produce Plexus: a work in knots, "strategies that can benefit all artists in our post-COVID reality."

Ashleigh Smith, Nasher intern and Duke Class of 2020, was excited to organize a small exhibition at the Nasher Museum this spring. When the museum temporarily closed, she converted the installation to a multimedia online project, which includes a Spotify playlist and podcast episode. An extension of her senior thesis, the project is the product of two years of research.

“The radical nature of art, at least the truth of it that I have come to embrace, is its capacity for care, empathy, reciprocity, invitation and correspondence with others.”—Dario Robleto, artist based in Houston and member of the Nasher Museum’s Board of Advisors. The global pandemic reminds Robleto of his early years as an artist, when social distancing, seclusion and self-reflection came naturally to him.

In advance of their Duke Performances livestream concert on Wed, Apr 22, we asked Kate McGarry and Keith Ganz reflect on an unexpected move back to Durham and potential benefits of this slower time at home.

Nasher Museum Educator Ryan Helsel reacted to the global pandemic by creating online art projects for teachers and families stuck at home. “We need art to process the world in which we live,” Helsel said. “That will never go away. I see more awareness and appreciation of this need in the broader public already, which makes me hopeful for an increased awareness of the value of all sorts of arts and artists in the future.”

In advance of his Duke Performances livestream concert on Wed, Apr 15, we asked Jake Xerxes Fussell to reflect on how the coronavirus crisis has impacted his work, and what he is finding reassuring.

John Brown, director of the Duke University Jazz Program, says: "Remember that art and artists will still be there for us on the other side when we reach that light. Artists need us just as much as we need them."

In advance of his Duke Performances livestream concert this Wednesday, we asked guitarist and composer William Tyler to reflect on how the coronavirus crisis has impacted his work, and what he is finding reassuring.

A message from Scott Lindroth for the Marcy 27 Duke Arts newsletter.