Santa Barbara’s Arts Community in the Pandemic Era

Three weeks ago, we planned this issue as a guide to the reopening of the arts in Santa Barbara. The speedy coronavirus raced ahead of our intentions, and, like everyone else, we had to reconsider what seemed more predictable than it really was. Santa Barbara’s arts organizations ordinarily plan far ahead, but COVID-19 has imposed a kind of paradox on them. When in-person services shut down in mid-March, many people in the arts were already working on what they would be doing in 2022 and beyond. Within weeks, the whole intervening period was put into question; by the time two months of quarantine had passed, the death of George Floyd had sent protesters into the streets all over the country in numbers not seen since the 1960s. It was as though the virus, along with our wobbly response to it, had exposed the ugly stitches of institutional violence suturing an unhealthy and unequal society.

Fortunately, even a pandemic can’t stop artists, performers, and the organizations that support them from doing great work. To understand the ways in which the arts in Santa Barbara have been transformed by these extraordinary times, the Independent sent out a survey. Many people and organizations responded, and we plan to continue gathering that information and providing a place for it both in print and on Independent.com so that people can report and find out what’s happening.

The observations that follow were drawn from the survey results and from a score of recent interviews with various arts leaders. While we could not possibly aspire to a comprehensive account of such a diverse and dynamic topic, we invite our readers to become sources and to have their voices heard as we continue telling this deep, multifaceted story.