Digital Theatre Transformation: A Case Study and Digital Toolkit for Small to Mid-Scale Theatres in England

About the project This project provided a roadmap for local and regional theatre companies to enable them to develop new, more flexible ways of working to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on live theatre. It investigated, and drew lessons from, the success of Creation Theatre (Oxford) and Big Telly (Northern Ireland), both of which […]

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WHAT NEXT FOR DIGITAL THEATRE?

By Richard Misek Digital Access to Arts and Culture Beyond Covid-19 The last 20 months have seen a widespread pivot within the UK’s theatre sector towards livestreamed, on-demand, and digitally native performances. During this time, well over half of all UK theatres and theatre companies have created artistic content for online audiences. But following the […]

Outside the Box: Open-Air Performance as a Pandemic Response

Case Study Theatre and performance artists innovated in their open-air practices during the pandemic, addressing the impacts upon the cultural sector and social isolation caused by lockdowns, alongside the ongoing protracted crises of climate change and biodiversity loss. Spanning theatre and management studies, Outside the Box: Open Air Performance as a Pandemic Response worked with […]

Culture Box: Remote and Digital Delivery of Arts and Creative Activities to Improve the Wellbeing of People with Dementia in Care Homes

Case Study People living with dementia in care homes have been severely negatively impacted during the pandemic with those from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups disproportionately affected. High rates of mortality, social isolation, loneliness and responsive behaviours (such as restlessness, agitation and wandering) increased as visits from loved ones, artists and creative practitioners […]

Impacts of COVID-19 on the cultural sector and implications for policy

About the project This project aimed to deepen understanding of the impacts of COVID-19 on cultural organisations, on the cultural sector workforce, and on audiences. There were three strands to this mixed methods research programme. The first examined the impacts on the cultural sector, analysing large data-sets including the ONS Labour Force Survey. These were […]

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The Pandemic and the Future of Arts and Humanities Research

Blakeney Clark is a final year English Literature undergraduate at Exeter University. She has been working as a student intern on the Pandemic & Beyond project media team, specialising in social media engagement. In this blog, she offers her perspective on the future of arts and humanities research as one of the ‘next generation’ emerging […]

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Like a new beginning: a message of hope, inspiration and community from the Pandemic and Beyond Lived Experience Panel

Dr Karen Gray records the reflections of the Lived Experience Panel members, who have been helping shape Pandemic & Beyond’s approach to research and public engagement. They discuss contributing to ongoing, urgent research initiatives and what lies ahead for creative research. From its earliest moments, the Pandemic & Beyond team has benefitted from the skills […]

Nature and Sustainability

Arts and Humanities research on Covid-19 often has a bearing on environmental sustainability and the relationship between the individual and their natural environment.  Research on how to help the creative industries weather the shocks of lockdowns has notably explored digital media as a low-carbon alternative to travel and designed digital platforms that enable new forms of virtual co-presence. Performance practitioners have also turned […]

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The Digital Beyond. Has COVID-19 transformed digital memorialisation?

Dr Eleanor O’Keeffe worked as Post Doctoral Research Associate on the AHRC funded project British Ritual Innovation under COVID-19. Here, she discusses some of her research into digital adoption in response to the pandemic. Sequoia Nagamatsu’s 2022 novel How High We Go in the Dark, which was started before the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, offers us […]

Far Apart UK: Looking Beyond Lockdown – How UK Arts Organisations Can Continue To Support Young People’s Wellbeing During COVID-19

About the project We know that young people’s participation in the arts has a positive impact their mental health and wellbeing. COVID-19 forced arts organisations to move their activities online, radically changing the ways in which they support young people. Using mixed methods, this study examined the impact of this shift to the digital on […]