NORWICH – Your Guide to the New World of Arts and Culture is an interactive catalog full of artists, performers, musicians, innovators, and arts educators available for hire for live, interactive virtual events.

“The idea is to safely connect our artists with individuals who are forced to stay home or who can only gather in small groups, via Zoom, Microsoft Meetings, Google or any of the variety of new ways people are connecting over the internet,” Executive Director Alecia ONeill said. “Of course, you can watch an artist demonstrate a painting technique for free on YouTube, but can you ask which brush to use in real time? Or have them respond in person and tell you how to create those happy little trees?”

Chenango Arts Council is very proud of its tradition of bringing arts and entertainment to our community and is determined to find ways of doing so despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

“When it became clear that the pandemic was not going to end in the near future, the Chenango Arts Council was forced to cancel all our in-person performances, workshops, and classes into 2021,” ONeill explains. “I had to find a way to lock the doors and keep the lights on, while at the same time providing our Arts Community with an income and the community the benefit of our services.”

Businesses, organizations, and individuals can sponsor any artist’s event from the catalog. The Arts Council helps coordinate a date, time, and manner in which the sponsor can then view the event. The Event (30- to 45- minutes) can then be broadcast as widely and to as many groups of people as the Sponsor wishes, or to just a few individuals in their homes. The fee paid by the sponsor goes to pay the artist; the Arts Council retains some administrative revenue for coordinating the transaction.

Currently 54 pages long, showcasing 15 artists in seven categories, The guide grows as participants continue to sign on. Refreshing your link to www.ChenangoArts.org automatically displays new events and sponsors. The guide is also a wonderful advertising opportunity, shared and promoted continuously online, and on local radio and newspapers - spotlighting your business as a supporter of the arts and your community. You can also sponsor the guide itself! Call Mary Beth Miller at 607-336-2787 or email MaryBeth.Miller@chenangoarts.org for details on advertising in the guide.

Once the Martin W. Kappel Theater is open again and live, in-person events are safe to resume, Your Guide to the New World of Arts and Culture will serve much as the Program Guide has in the past, distributed and available in hard copy.

Please call Alecia ONeill at 607-336-2787 or email alecia.oneill@chenangoarts.org for more information or if you have any questions.