In response to Coronavirus, Rural Arts launched RADISH – Rural Arts Daily Inspiration while Staying at Home.
This was our way – while our in-person services are suspended – to support people to feel connected and creative during the difficult and worrying time of 2020.
We shared and ran something creative every weekday between Monday 23rd March, until we were able to reopen.
Chief Executive Max May had this to say:
“On Monday 16th March 2020, following updated Government guidance on social distancing, we made the difficult decision to suspend all usual Rural Arts’ activity. We took Tuesday to do emergency planning – vital as a small charity – and by Wednesday were planning how we could support our communities, both locally and digitally. We are excited today to launch our plans to keep everyone we can safe, healthy and happy during these unprecedented times.”
Take a look below at the exciting events that #RADISH offered during the pandemic of 2020:
| Day | RADISH Activity | Details | How to access? |
| Monday | #MondayMakers | Sharing profiles on the artists we work with, many of whom as self-employed face troubling times ahead. Please share and consider buying some work if possible! | Via our Facebook and Twitter accounts. Don’t have Facebook and Twitter accounts? Read our note below! |
| Tuesday | #TuesdayTalks | Hosting or sharing talks – art, yoga, anything creative – and making calls to people we know are vulnerable or isolated | Via our Facebook and Twitter accounts. Don’t have Facebook and Twitter accounts? Read our note below! |
| Wednesday | Taste Of… online (10.30am) | Each Wednesday we host a ‘Taste Of…’ workshop at The Courthouse. We’ve developed a new range of workshops that can now beam direct into your home! If you enjoyed it, please consider donating at http://ruralarts.org/ruralarts-donations If you can’t donate, please share about #RADISH! | Posted to our Facebook page at 10.30am on Wednesdays. Don’t have Facebook? Read our note below! Visit THIS PAGE to view all the upcoming workshop themes and ‘You Will Need’ lists |
| Thursday | Art Club online (4pm) | Normal Thursday afternoon Art Club goes online – but any and all can attend! If you enjoyed it, please consider donating at http://ruralarts.org/ruralarts-donations If you can’t donate, please share about #RADISH! | Posted to our Facebook page at 4pm on Thursdays. Don’t have Facebook? Read our note below! Visit THIS PAGE to view all the upcoming workshop themes and ‘You Will Need’ lists |
| Friday | #FlashbackFriday | We’ve been going almost thirty years – and plan to be around for at least thirty more! We’re going to be sharing some of our favourite memories from projects and performances, and ask you do too! | Via our Facebook and Twitter accounts. Don’t have Facebook and Twitter accounts? Read our note below! |
“We have to do what we can. It’s not safe currently to meet in person – for our customers or our staff – so we’ve had to think: what can we do from home – from our bedrooms and living rooms – to try and help?”, says Max May.
The charity, which hosts over 600 events and activities a year all across North Yorkshire, asked patrons with bookings that are currently postponed to consider turning them into donations to help keep Rural Arts running during this unprecedented time. One-off donations were also made and Gift Vouchers for future Rural Arts’ activity were bought via our website.
Rural Arts’ statement on Coronavirus, and answers to Frequently Asked Questions can be found here.
Don’t have Facebook or Twitter? You don’t need to!
To view our posts on Facebook, go to https://www.facebook.com/pg/ruralartsnorthyorkshire/posts/. It will ask you to log in or sign up, but you can ignore this, or click the small ‘Not Now’ button. You can’t like or comment without a Facebook account.
To view our posts on Twitter, go to https://twitter.com/ruralarts. You can’t like or comment without a Twitter account. Twitter restricts how many characters (letters, numbers etc.) you can use per post (Tweet), so we are using ‘threads’ to connect them together. It will be easiest to read things all together by clicking ‘Show thread’ on the Tweets where it is showing.
