Randy Stewart

This week on “Arts News” I caught up with Emily Frankoski, Director of Joplin’s arts agency Connect2Culture.  Normally, she and I will do a monthly interview we call “Spotlight on Joplin,” but since the pandemic hit, we haven’t talked about how the arts community in Joplin has been getting along.   

This week on KSMU's "Arts News" we hear from Avery Parish, coordinator of the First Friday Art Walk, about the impact of the pandemic and social distancing on the monthly Springfield arts event.                                   

Mark Applegate works for the local SeniorAge Area Agency on Aging.  He writes a blog called "Digital Cornbread," which just passed its one-year anniversary online back in March, when we first started working on these KSMU "Sense of Community" stories.

In it, he chronicles the journey he, his sister, Pam Lavin, their stepfather, John Alexander, and their mother, Brenda, have taken since Brenda went into a nursing home in Republic because of advancing Alzheimer's Disease.

In March, during one of the Alzheimer's Association's classes on Living with Memory Loss presented at The Library Center in Springfield, Deb Bryer from the  Alzheimer's Association St. Louis Chapter got the crowd in a jovial mood.

"I'm going to ask a question:   if you can answer 'yes' to the question, you get a 'kiss.'" As the attendees started laughing, she was quick to add, "It's a CHOCOLATE kiss! We're keeping it clean in here!"   

This week’s “Coronavirus Edition” of “Arts News” features a talk with Christopher Koch, Music Director and conductor of Springfield Regional Opera.  I asked him what SRO was working on when the stay-at-home order hit in March.                                                                

The COVID-19 pandemic has certainly changed lots of plans.  Symphony orchestra concert seasons, for one.

“Everybody in society is navigating uncharted waters. But it's been especially strange and difficult for us in the live performing arts, because everything we do involves gathering together. So we've definitely had to change and reschedule and cancel and rethink things on a pretty broad scale here.”                                             

On this week's "Arts News" our guest is Nick Nelson, Director of the Springfield Art Museum.  The Art Museum. like all other businesses or organizations deemed "non-essential," had to close its doors to the public some six weeks ago to help stop the spread of COVID-19.  It remains closed, even though the local stay-at-home order has been lifted, said Nelson.          

The 40th anniversary of a springtime tradition in Springfield is yet another casualty of social distancing caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.  ArtsFest on Walnut Street 2020 was scheduled to take place this Saturday and Sunday, May 2nd and 3rd, in the Walnut Street Historic District between South National Avenue and John Q.

For this week’s “Coronavirus Edition” of “Arts News,” we checked in with Rick Dines, Managing Artistic Director of Springfield Contemporary Theatre, to hear how SCT is weathering the stay-at-home order.            

The April concert in the Springfield Symphony Orchestra's 2019-2020 season, "Great American Road Trip," was scheduled for Saturday, April 18.  It has, of course, been cancelled due to the Coronavirus pandemic. In its place, they have decided to produce a live fundraiser for the orchestra and its musicians on the Symphony's Facebook page, www.facebook.com/springfieldsymphony.  Lexi Locke, Marketing Manager of  the Springfield Symphony, explains.

For this week’s “Coronavirus Edition” of KSMU’s “Arts News,” we checked in with Beth Domann, Executive Director of Springfield Little Theatre, to see how they are dealing with the current shutdown. Of course, as Domann said, it has “put a halt to our entire season—that’s for sure.                                                                     

Like many people Missouri State University Managing Director of Theatre and Dance, Mark Templeton, is hunkered down at home during the Coronavirus stay-at-home order.  But so are the many students, Theatre and Dance faculty, and theatre professionals who would normally be gearing up for the 58th consecutive season of MSU Tent Theatre, scheduled for June 10-July 18, 2020. The 2020 Tent season has been cancelled, and Mark Templeton discussed the reasons why, and what the Theatre and Dance Department hopes to offer to fill the gap.            

Eddie Gumucio, local musician and educator, and host of KSMU’s Wednesday night program “Beneath the Surface,” organizes a live music festival in Springfield every August, called “Queen City Shout.” It features area musicians, and raises money for local non-profits. During the current Stay-At-Home Coronavirus order, nobody is able to perform live, or go out to live venues to hear music. One of Eddie Gumucio’s friends shared a Facebook link with him that gave him an idea.