Page 322 - Guildhall Coverage Book 2020-21

Colin’s Column

26 April 2021

New online arts festival, DISRUPT,

launches 8-9 July 2021.

Born out of the COVID-19 pandemic, DISRUPT will reimagine the role of the arts in our
society

DISRUPT is a new digital arts festival, taking place virtually on 8-9 July 2021, co-ordinated
by Guildhall School of Music & Drama and Barbican in partnership with, Culture, Health &
Wellbeing Alliance, Culture Mile, Lived Experience Network, Maya Productions, and Slung
Low. The festival has been created in response to the global pandemic, and aims to explore
the ways in which COVID-19 has intensified socio-economic inequalities, deprivation, and
isolation. With a programme of discussions, panels and workshops across two days,
DISRUPT will lift the lid on the ways the performing arts can support communities during
this time and how a year of uncertainty and change has encouraged new and radical ways
of working. Tickets are available on a pay-what-you-can basis here.

Sean Gregory, Director of Innovation and Engagement, Barbican & Guildhall School of
Music & Drama says: ‘Barbican, Guildhall School and the rest of the partners are really excited
to be launching DISRUPT. The arts are better placed than ever to shine a light on the growing
inequalities experienced by society, but are the creative and social imperatives of our cultural
organisations fit for purpose in meeting these people and community-based needs? With long-
standing, established ‘ways of doing things’ increasingly being challenged over the past year, it
now feels the right time to convene a festival where we can all ‘listen and learn’ from each
other. Above all, we genuinely hope DISRUPT can have a positive impact on the processes and
structures through which organisations, artists and communities collaborate, thereby creating a
more open, inclusive, and democratic partnership ecology for the future.’