NON:op Open Opera Works presents "Viral Silence: Community Portraits in Response to COVID-19", a statewide collaborative community commissioning and virtual touring program that captures local experiences and responses to COVID-19. This second year of programming partners three new artists and Illinois communities: JoVia Armstrong, composer and sound artist, with Chicago’s Austin neighborhood and Saint Martin's Episcopal Church; Edward Breitweiser with pt.fwd and the McLean County Museum of History; and X, an indigenous futurist, who will create a geolocated augmented reality soundscape app.
Creative artists and the cultural sector have been especially adversely affected economically by the pandemic. Viral Silence strives to address the needs of these accomplished individual artists and offers hope and support to a wide and diverse audience of viewers who mourn the closure of cultural and performance institutions. The project’s participatory processes and resulting portraits help to heal and bind communities around memory, loss, and rediscovery.
NON:op seeks to foster community, collective responsibility, and mutual respect and well-being; to this end, it is offering attendees two options to choose between. Individuals may gather in person in Chicago and Bloomington, in which case they must comply with COVID-19 protocols, or they may attend via live streaming. For more information on NON:op’s COVID-19 protocols, visit
https://www.nonopera.org/WP2/covidattestation/.
Performances are FREE for both in-person and live-stream attendance! Reservations are encouraged and may be made at
https://nonopera.ticketleap.com/vs/ or by calling 773-418-0119 for more information.