After a hiatus of a little over a month because of the novel coronavirus, Saturday Night Live aired for the first time on April 11, 2020. “SNL At Home” reflected the reality with which we have all become familiar: the “Brady-Bunch” style picture-boxes of Zoom, reproducing ourselves, smiling at each other while glancing from time-to-time at our own images, dressed up or styled down, against backdrops as misdirecting as our meandering eyes. The SNL cast poked fun at our new workday situations and leisure activities, such as hastily recorded workout videos, imaginatively led by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, or at least Kate McKinnon’s embodiment of her character’s nimble nonagenarian. However bleak the times in which we live, laughter has been scientifically studied as having positive physiological effects.
Critical response to SNL has been by and large positive and noted the challenges regarding what “live” really means during a contagious, global pandemic that requires social distancing. Others across the country have taken on similar endeavors, from theatre companies selling tickets to recorded events, to musicians broadcasting impromptu concerts. The Modlin Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Richmond has gathered some of these at their website.
The current moment gives us an opportunity to reflect on the role of art, more broadly, in these troubled times.
The sacred ground, the refining beauty of art, is why the University of Richmond President, Ronald A. Crutcher, a cellist, took time from other pressing and urgent concerns of the day to broadcast a concert on April 17, 2020. Before he began playing, he referred to his favorite two musical pieces as his “chicken soup for the musical soul,” his “comfort food.” He recited Henry Eccles, “Sonata in G Minor;” and Camille Saint- Saëns “the Swan” (from his “Carnival of the Animals”). President Crutcher said: “What I rely on for my salve, for my relaxation, is music.” He called on other artists to go virtual, as he has, to bring joy and happiness to others.
Art is therapy for our hurting souls. Art appeals to all that is real, ideal and sublime, the worst, best and wildest things in our imagination.
Dr. Patrice Rankine is the dean of the School of Arts & Sciences and professor of classics at the University of Richmond.
