100 days of lockdown
/So, we’ve been in lockdown for 100 days? It feels like a milestone worth acknowledging, and not just for a social media trend.
In that time we’ve had to postpone Starling 10, our 10th anniversary concert at Cadogan Hall, we’ve taken group singing - the very nature of which relies so heavily on being in the same physical space as each other - online, and we’ve watched our beloved friends in the arts adapt their craft in innovative ways in spite of social distancing, a lack of government support for the sector and our new best friend, latency. And we’ve navigated all this against the storm of a global pandemic and wide-spread turmoil.
Having read that back, it sounds a bit defeatist. We’ve actually found numerous moments of joy and hope in the last 100 days, so we thought we’d share some of them and bring you up to date with how Starling Arts have spent the first 100 days of Lockdown.
Celebrating Singing for Wellbeing Documentary
We released our Celebrating Singing for Wellbeing mini-documentary, created as part of our Arts Council England National Lottery grant funded project exploring the relationship between group singing and mental health.
The Voice Inside
In conjunction with the above, we wrote and released a song that encapsulates the Starling Arts philosophy. On Facebook alone it’s had 80,000+ views, far more than we could have ever imagined!
Nest Choir
Via Zoom, we now run a fortnightly online choir made up of members, alumni, friends and family of the Starling community. We learn an uplifting song, complete with ‘Zoom-ography’ and harmonies, and get to connect with Starling friends across the globe. Find out more here.
Parenting Mental Health
We’ve begun working with the Parenting Mental Health community to bring a weekly music and mindful boost to the parents of children who are facing mental health issues and mental illness. Parenting Mental Health is global community and it’s a joy to sing with people in different time zones each week!
Zoom Choir
Members of our choirs join us every Thursday for mindfulness, singing, dancing, playing games, socialising and more! We’ve also worked towards our own virtual choir project…
Lockdown Bucket List
We wrote a song about the fact that we haven’t done half the things we thought we would in the last 100 days… and that’s OK! Our singers recorded their parts from home and we compiled all their work in the video below!
Anti-Racism Ideas Exchange
As leaders of the Starling community, we’ve been moved to play a vital role in educating and informing both ourselves and the people we are connected with on the damaging impact of systemic racism and white supremacy. As such, we have developed an Ideas Exchange with our members, sharing content and resources so we can work together as a community who actively practice anti-racism. We’re reading, watching, learning and hosting discussions with our members, and the Ideas Exchange is also raising money for The Grenfell Foundation.
So what do the next 100 days (and beyond) have in store?
Although the safety of group singing is still unclear - research is being carried out into how singing causes viruses to become aerosols which can spread further than the droplets we produce speaking, increasing the chance of airborne transmission of Covid-19, if a singer is infected - and it’s unlikely that large social groups will be able to meet indoors together for a while, we remain optimistic!
Over the summer, we’ll be running fortnightly skills workshops with our members via Zoom and will run our autumn term online, with weekly themes and challenges our members can get involved with.
Once it’s safe to rehearse and perform again, we’ll be back! The last 100 days have allowed us to take stock of all we’ve achieved in the last 10 years and how we want Starling Arts to grow in the future. It may not have been the 10th anniversary we had planned, but it’s certainly one we’ll all remember!
As we sing in Lockdown Bucket List, “this time apart has shown us what we love and we miss” and we can’t wait to be back getting groups singing with the people we love and miss most.
