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Welcome to

The Social Distancing Festival.

This is a site for celebrating art from all over the world, showcasing amazing talent, and coming together as a community at a time when we need it more than ever.

A NOTE FROM NICK - Thank you so much for checking out The Social Distancing Festival. I can’t believe how quickly this all happened (on so many levels). I am so grateful to have gotten the chance to connect with artists around the world. You have really kept me company during this tough and lonely time.

My small team of AMAZING colleagues and I have been through hundreds of submissions, and are really proud to present you with this collection of art, as well as our ever-growing calendar of live streams from around the world. We’ll keep taking submissions and updating the site, so keep coming back!

I hope that you enjoy the work displayed on this site. I hope that you can get lost in work of all different mediums and styles from artists in all different stages of their careers . I hope you read their stories and feel connected through a shared love of art and creation and life. And I hope that helps to get you through.

That’s really, ultimately, the whole point.

LONG DISTANCE ART

Round 2 of our Long Distance Art project has LAUNCHED! We have been hard at work pairing up artists from different artistic disciplines in cities around the world to create new works of art. Click above to check it out!

LONG DISTANCE ART ROUND 2
One Medium to Another
One Medium to Another

Mexico City and Tallinn - Denis Serrano and Anastasia Lemberg-Lvova are two very different artists, so what happens when they each create new work that’s inspired by the other?

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I’m Okay
I’m Okay

London, Zebbug, and Toronto - Composer Cordelia O’Driscoll pitched a song to Toronto’s Quarantrio, and then shared it with a choreographer Pamela Kerr.

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The Leaving
The Leaving

Ojai and Newcastle Upon Tyne - Textile artist Jane Sanders creates a portrait of spoken word artist Licity Collins using her own words.

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LONG DISTANCE ART
Wild Heart
Wild Heart

Dar es Salaam and Toronto - The amazing song Wild Heart by Anika Johnson, Barbara Johnston, and Suzy Wilde (Toronto), danced to by Tadhi Alawi (Dar es Salaam)

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This Ain’t No Video Game, We Want Outta This Circus
This Ain’t No Video Game, We Want Outta This Circus

Calgary and Cleveland - A collaboration reflecting on race and the pandemic between artists Tekikki Walker and Simone Saunders has crossed borders.

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Resurgam / Sun Keeper
Resurgam / Sun Keeper

New York City and Adelaide - Painter Liza Merkalova (Adelaide, South Australia) and musician Charlie Rauh (New York, USA) collaborate on a project that goes from art to music to art again.

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FEATURED 

Click above to see more. This curated section features some super exciting contributions to the site. We’ll be updating it regularly!

FEATURED
The Quarantrio
The Quarantrio

Toronto, CANADA - When life gives you lemons… sing about it in perfect harmony. Georgia Bennett, Joel Cumber, and Kelsey Verzotti are not only three extremely talented performers in Toronto, they’re also roommates. Faced with lost work and with fewer auditions on the horizon, these three created the Quarantrio, covering a variety of songs in stunning, perfect three-part harmony. And HOLY CRAP they are good. I honestly listen through their YouTube playlist almost on the daily.

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IT Dansa presents “Whim” from home
IT Dansa presents “Whim” from home

Barcelona, SPAIN - This one is pretty awesome. It shows us what can be done with existing pieces of dance even when we are all distanced apart. It’s invigorating, whimsical, and wondrous and set against the backdrop of one of the most magical cities in the world.

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Indigenous Futurisms: Transcending Past/Present/Future
Indigenous Futurisms: Transcending Past/Present/Future

Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA - This incredible and unique exhibit was sent to us by graphic designer Sallie Wesaw Sloan on behalf of the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts. All pieces explore the future from a Native perspective and they are just stunning. In this post, you will see a few select pieces, some shots from the actual exhibit, and a link to a beautiful virtual version of this exhibition! Enjoy exploring this special collection!

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Sonia e Barrett
Sonia e Barrett

ITALY - From the artist: I made this installation and it is in Italy which because it became the European epicentre of the virus will not be seen by very many people at all. The space town region and then the country it is in went to lockdown. www.sebarrett.net

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Click to check it out!

Click to check it out!

I’m so excited to share with you all a workshop production of the first 45 minutes of a new musical I wrote with composers Anika Johnson and Barb Johnston.

Living the Dream is a new musical about loneliness, quarantine, and reality television. This video is of the workshop production mounted during the Canadian Music Theatre Projects.