Where is everybody? -paraphrase of the Fermi Paradox

Creatures adapt to their environments and yet a sudden, sweeping change can produce stress and confusion for even those species who feel they hold dominion over much of their surroundings. To be faced with an intrusion that cannot be controlled is to feel alienated in your own world - at odds with the very nature that, just yesterday, felt comfortable and familiar. Much of what the human world is experiencing now gives rise to this feeling of unease, the sense that what we thought we knew is now dissolved, replaced by a growing new reality that we cannot yet define.

Randy Rollison is Executive Director of Intersection for the Arts in San Francisco, the largest fiscal sponsorship provider for the arts in the Bay Area. The organization has been around since 1965 and has gone through multiple iterations. For Rollison, his role is a wonderful culmination of his own journey and presents the opportunity to work with young start-up organizations as well as mature organizations including those who may have seen their day and face the need to reinvent or dissolve. Rollison relishes his role of service and helping artists realize their project goals. When Rollison spoke with us in the midst of the Coronavirus Pandemic he discussed how this time affects those he works with. He described two project directors within Intersection for the Arts who came together to form a safety net fund for artists who have lost day jobs as a result of the pandemic. In order to bring support for artists, they reach out to a broad network of potential donors. During the recent period when ICE raids were prevalent, artists were using drumming as a warning that ICE was approaching. To hear more about the sorts of projects that Rollison oversees in his role at Intersection for the Arts, listen to the complete interview.

Arthur Menezes Brum is an artist, educator and consultant located in Cincinnati, Ohio where he just moved from New York City. Brum finds much of his current work must be condensed. He is working on smaller sculptures and works using materials from his day-to-day environment under quarantine. A lot of this work at the moment has to do with the theme of keeping the interior world healthy while we are surrounded by illness. The artist is attempting to grieve what has been lost in the world while building up for an uncertain future that worries him. Another, less hermetic action Brum has begun taking is to venture out to get groceries by way of a park by his home dressed in a seersucker suit, white gloves, boat shoes, an alien mask and the appropriate medical mask, respirator and sunglasses. For Brum, this represents the alien nature of public mask wearing which, to him, feels like an aggressive action that is a constant reminder of illness and death. To hear more of the artist’s thoughts about the current moment and his work, listen to the complete interview.