I have been really impressed with how the arts sector has responded to their venues being closed, quickly shifting from a live programme to embrace technology so they can engage with the millions of people now at home.

It is not only organisations who are delivering new activity but individual musicians, artists and actors who are generously sharing their skills and knowledge. I wanted to use this week’s digest as an opportunity to highlight some of these and maybe encourage you to experience some of the arts on offer.

In some ways the content that is coming out is not new. In the office we have been recently enjoying the delights of Bob Ross’s Joy of Painting all of which can be viewed on YouTube. Bob had a television programme that aired from 1984- 92 but seems to have gained a new cult following amongst students, who recently requested that I run a Bob Ross painting workshop.

We already offer a painting and drawing class but I think that is where the comparisons with Bob Ross probably end. LU Arts classes and workshops are probably the most popular aspects of what we do, whether that be one off taster workshops or a ten week course. The most popular artform is most definitely pottery, with the evening classes selling out in hours. However, there is no reason why you can’t do some pottery at home by ordering clay online: company called Kana Clay Club is selling a kit and will shortly be running regular virtual workshops that you can then follow online. We are currently pulling together a programme of online creative workshops, that will be delivered by our talented students and hopefully some will involve clay! Our choir and book group have both met via Zoom this week and we hope more of our activities will be able to continue in this way.

Some of the world’s leading arts organisations have been releasing previously unavailable content of their major productions. The National Theatre Live has launched National Theatre At Home, releasing one of their previous screenings each week via their YouTube channel and The Globe Theatre have a dedicated channel to show the Bard’s outputs. Musically, if you have never seen any operas this is probably the time to do it with so many of the big opera houses making their productions available online. For dance fans the place to go is Sadler’s Wells who are streaming productions on their ‘digital stage’ platform. All the major art galleries are doing virtual tours around their exhibitions and musically there are live streams of concerts as part of Digital Stage. Many of the large orchestras are streaming concerts or if you want to see how the Nottingham’s talented Kanneh-Mason family are getting on in lockdown you tune in via cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason’s facebook page every Wednesday and Friday at 5.30pm (BST).

I also wanted to signpost you to the work of two artists who have been part of our programme. Firstly, Emmanuel Almborg is a film maker who spoke at last year’s symposium around alternative art education. His original films have recently been made available and I would particularly recommend the one about Summerhill School. My second choice, which I am sure you will enjoy, is a stop motion animation made by Japanese artist Yukihiro Taguchi while he was artist in residence here at Loughborough University.

Of course, you could just forget about online content and read a good book or some poetry. We have been asking staff and students what their ‘lockdown literature’ is and we will shortly be sharing this via our social media channels. For now, I will leave you with a poem that was written by an Irish poet Kathleen O’Meara in 1869 after the plague had devastated Ireland but is equally appropriate for the current situation

And people stayed home
and read books and listened
and rested and exercised
and made art and played
and learned new ways of being
and stopped and listened deeper

someone meditated
someone prayed
someone danced
someone met their shadow

and people began to think differently
and people healed
and in the absence of people who lived in ignorant ways,
dangerous, meaningless and heartless,
even the earth began to heal

and when the danger ended
and people found each other
grieved for the dead people
and they made new choices
and dreamed of new visions
and created new ways of life
and healed the earth completely
just as they were healed themselves.