Infrastructure Canada has provided a handful of businesses with funding as a step toward economic recovery post COVID-19.
One of the many Niagara based businesses receiving funding is the Gallery Players of Niagara (GPN), which plans to invest that money in its virtual future, according to artistic director Margaret Gay.
GPN is a chamber music group that performs around the Niagara region. Adjusting to COVID-19 was difficult, according to Gay, who is also cellist for the gallery. She said the 26-year-old organization typically plays seven shows a year, but in 2020, was only able to do three shows before the province-wide shutdown that left future shows as an uncertainty.
Later in the year, GPN was able to present two more in-person shows with COVID restrictions in place, that were also livestreamed. However, according to Gay, much of the gallery’s listeners are seniors who “had never been on YouTube, had never streamed a concert, just had never listened to music on the computers, and had no idea what to do.”
As a result, Gay herself spent “hours” on the phone with many audience members teaching them computer literacy, to help them connect to the show. She joked that she had plenty of hours to give, given the lack of shows. In the process of virtually connecting with the audience, she said she found a “silver lining” to online shows.
“Many of our audience have reached out to say that the thing that they love about these virtual concerts is that they're sharing them with their parents or people in their lives who used to come to our concerts, but are no longer mobile,” said Gay.
The lack of mobility pertains to a few reasons: older audience members being potentially high-risk patients if they contract COVID-19 and thus being isolated, provincial lockdown restrictions or a general lack of mobility due to old age.
“And so all of a sudden, they've been able to share our concerts with a lot of people around them who did come at one point, but were unable to come and now can participate again.”
She said that although GPN does intend to return to in-person shows, online shows is something they will continue to do. The $11,000 funding from Infrastructure Canada will go to paying musicians as well as video and audio engineering for the production or virtual shows that are meant to be shared online.
“It's grown the accessibility of our concerts and ultimately, that's what we're striving for. We want our music to be accessible to as many people as possible,” Gay said.
“This funding at this moment gives us the chance to work on something that we believe is incredibly important for our future,” she said. “It's fantastic. We feel incredibly grateful to have been awarded this. The timing couldn't be better.”
- Moosa Imran, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Grimsby Lincoln News