Daily Stream: Artists Are Necessary Workers conversation series

Dance/NYC advocates for professionals in the field of dance and the work they create, and the pandemic has created a need for arts advocacy unlike any in recent memory. For performers and presenters dedicated to a discipline that requires close physical contact, and for artists used to their work being met by the energy of an audience, the specifics of COVID-19 transmission are creating an existential challenge. And the arts sector is too often low on the radar in discussions of local, state, and federal relief, despite the substantial positive impact the arts have on the US economy.

To bring broader attention to these challenges and those affected by them, Dance/NYC has launched the conversation series Artists Are Necessary Workers. Each Tuesday at 5:30 PM EDT through August 4 on Facebook Live, professionals representing various functions in the performance world convene to tackle industry-relevant subject matter.

Today's talk includes participation from our own Director of Performing Arts, Lane Czaplinski. He'll discuss the future of touring post-COVID, joined by Anna Glass, Executive Director of Dance Theater of Harlem; Laura Colby, President of Elsie Management (which includes Ann Carlson and Manual Cinema in its roster); and Marjani Forté-Saunders, choreographer, performer, educator, and community organizer, and cofounder of 7NMS.

The talks are free and no registration is required. Upcoming programs include a July 21 session on the role of the digital experience in the future of arts and an August 4 talk about the value of dance work as a form of labor.

Watch "Artists Are Necessary Workers: Touring in a Post-COVID World" tonight at 5:30 PM via Dance/NYC on Facebook Live.