The economic fallout of the pandemic has hit the arts and culture sector particularly hard. Nationally, 1.4 million jobs and $42.5 billion in sales have been lost. With rare exceptions, live performance came to a complete stop, museums and galleries closed, youth arts programs struggled to stay alive, and funding for artistic creation was scarce. Arts organizations found innovative ways to continue creating, diving deep into various forms of online programming (though there is little financial return in this), and they have just begun to emerge from the crisis.

the arts matter and merit our support

The National Endowment for the Arts stresses the importance of a healthy arts sector because of the role it plays in building community, encouraging wellbeing, and helping us make sense of the past – all critical as we begin a long process of healing. Both nationally and locally, arts organizations have also been urged to think about their role in furthering racial equity. Many of those featured in this Catalogue have been doing so all along and others are coming to it afresh – thinking about the work they present on their stages and how they present it, who runs it, who participates in it, what stories are being told, and how the arts can be at once a source of joy and illumination, a window onto other worlds, an invitation to think with depth and complexity, and an opportunity to create social change. If truly learning about one another, struggling against what divides us, encouraging new voices as they make themselves heard – if all of these things matter, then the arts matter and merit our support.