BBC announces plans to bring the arts into people's homes with Culture in Quarantine festival

As coronavirus shuts down the country’s arts institutions, we’re all looking for ways to get our cultural fix.

The BBC has today announced a plan to keep arts and culture streaming into the public’s homes, and have unveiled Culture in Quarantine. The festival will be covering everything from theatre and dance to art and classical music, as well as how the sector is responding to the current crisis.

Director of Arts at the BBC, Jonty Claypole, announced the service focused on TV, radio and online, which will contain guides to closed exhibitions or permanent gallery collections, music and comedy performances, filmed recordings of plays and gems from the archive.

Previously staged plays such as Mike Bartlett’s Albion, and director Emma Rice’s production of Wise Children will be screened, alongside new plays created especially for broadcast.

Claypole said that BBC Radio 3 would be continuing to broadcast classical music, adding that “at a time when many freelance musicians face uncertainty, BBC Radio 3 is looking to set up a series of special chamber studio recordings”.

The BBC envisages this to be “a virtual festival of the arts...rooted in the experience of both voluntary and involuntary isolation. All this will be done hand-in-hand with the wider arts and cultural sector through coverage and collaboration."

Claypole said: “For a sector that thrives on bringing people together to share live and shared experiences, and that brings benefits for us all, it raises the urgent question: what is culture in a state of quarantine?”

“For me, a precious ray of sunshine has emerged in the clear determination of artists, performers, curators and producers to keep creating and connecting with audiences whatever the circumstances.

“Historically, artists thrive on periods of isolation and it seems certain that the current period will result in new plays, poems, books, films, paintings, sculptures and all other forms of art that might not otherwise occur.

“In supporting this activity there is a clear role for the BBC. As a public service organisation, it has always aimed to be more than a broadcaster but a stage, gallery and cultural platform in everybody’s homes.”