Through times of crisis, artists often find their voices. But when their audiences have been dispersed by a pandemic, who's listening?
This weekend, PorchFest, along with an ongoing Capital Arts virtual art exhibit, provided digital platforms for local artists - visual and performing - to show off their talents and share their messages. (See links below this story.)
Jefferson City has had its share of crises in the past year. Just after the last PorchFest, an EF-3 tornado swept through the city, causing damage to hundreds of structures. Many people had not recovered from that when the coronavirus pandemic hit in March.
"It was important to keep the tradition because last year's PorchFest was last festival before the tornado," said Leann Porrello, cultural arts specialist with the Jefferson City Parks, Recreation and Forestry Department.
After the COVID-19 pandemic, it was important to show a sense of normalcy, tradition and the city's perseverance, she said.
In addition to PorchFest, Capital Arts is holding an ongoing virtual art exhibition. So far, more than 250 pieces of artwork have been submitted in the first half of the exhibition, which goes until May 15. Artists have submitted various mediums, including oil, photography, sculpture, acrylic and digital art.
The exhibit is being held on Capital Arts' Facebook page. Submissions can be sent there or to [email protected]. Each submission must include the artist's name and medium.
For PorchFest, some 15 local artists made videos of themselves performing on their porches or backyards. Their genres included blues, folk, alternative rock, pop and country. Many of the songs were originals.
The videos were uploaded to YouTube and posted on the event's Facebook page throughout Sunday. The PorchFest event page on Facebook also included bio information for the artists and links to their pages.
PorchFest artists included musicians, poets, spoken word artists and visual artists.
Despite technical "hiccups" - such as helping artists upload their videos - the event went well and has been well-received, Porrello said.
The event lasted until 4 p.m. By 3 p.m., Porrello said the event had real-time interactions with about 500 "attendees."
"We felt like it's a huge success," she said. "People can tune in when they want. Some people have tuned in all day."
One of the artists was poet Richie Paulo, who performed, "Funny Thing About Life," a poem he wrote about hope amid all of life's woes.
"I wanted to write one specifically for PorchFest," Paulo said. "I wrote it just for this occasion. I wanted to create a piece everyone could relate to - especially now, the way things are currently - just to reflect on life and what we have learned and who we are now because of it."
He said one day he hopes we can turn a negative into a positive by looking back on the COVID-19 pandemic and realizing what we've learned. Maybe, he said, we'll even being able to laugh about it.
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