Coronavirus and Culture: Challenges, changes and creative responses

With galleries, museums, theatres, music venues, pubs and clubs closed, cultural life and the way we participate in creative activities has changed drastically as a result of the global pandemic. Facilitated by Baroness Deborah Bull CBE, join our panel of King's alumni, academic and cultural sector experts as we discuss some of the new challenges and changes the sector now faces.

Key questions will include: What are some of the creative measures already being implemented by key players in the sector? How is the pandemic affecting the way we participate in cultural activities? How are artists impacted? What could the future look like for culture and the creative industries?

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Panel:

Dr Gus Casely-Hayford OBE

Cultural Fellow at King's College London

Dr Casely-Hayford is the founding Director of V&A East, a museum and collection centre presently under construction. He was previously the Director of the Smithsonian, National Museum of African Art and is a curator and cultural historian who writes, lectures and broadcasts widely on culture. Over the course of his career Casely-Hayford has been a constant champion for the arts. He has presented two television series of The Lost Kingdoms of Africa on the BBC, two television series of Tate Britain, Great Art Walks for Sky and has worked for every major British TV channel. His TED talk on Islamic culture has been viewed more than a million times. Former Executive Director of Arts Strategy, Arts Council England and Ex-Director of the Institute of International Contemporary Art, he has offered leadership to both large and medium scale organisations.

Dr Kate McMillan

Teaching Fellow in Culture, Media and Creative Industries at King's College London

For over twenty years Kate McMillan has been a practicing contemporary artist working across installation, film, sound, photography and sculpture. McMillan has been shown in, and collected by, major museums, biennales, festivals and institutions around the world. Her work examines the persistence of difficult and forgotten histories in the present. Both her art practice and academic research engages with the residue of the past. Her PhD explored the capacity for contemporary art to un-forget history with a specific focus on the colonial histories of Australia. More recently she has been writing on the methodologies of creative resistance in the global south, and in feminist practices. McMillan is the author of the annual Freelands Foundation report on 'Representation of Female Artist in Britain' and is currently researching the impact of COVID-19 on female artists across the country. She has always worked as an advocate, advisor, and writer alongside her practice.

Natalia Vartapetova

Consultant at AEA Consulting

Natalia holds a Cultural and Creative Industries MA from King's and has since worked in research, project management, business development, and marketing roles in the cultural and creative sectors. She has run marketing campaigns at the Barbican Center and worked in project management for international festivals, and for governmental bodies in Europe and the U.S. Natalia currently works at AEA Consulting, where her focus is on cultural policy planning and evaluation; business and scenario planning; methodology development; market research and analysis for cultural organisations, government and public agencies, and philanthropic foundations. Facilitating strategic, policy, and capital investment projects in the arts, Natalia has consulted a wide range of cultural and creative organisations and funders in Europe, North America, New Zealand, UK, and the Middle East.