COVID: $121M loss for OC’s arts community as in-person events halted

Performing Arts Plots Return After Long Intermission

On the last weekend in April, the Segerstrom Center for the Arts tried something it hadn’t done in 14 months—a live performance in an indoor setting.

Dancers from the American Ballet Theater performed three shows, each with 300 in the audience, or only 10% of capacity to follow coronavirus protocols.

“Ninety seconds after the curtain rose and the performance started, it felt normal,” Segerstrom Center President Casey Reitz told the Business Journal.

“We were giddy and relieved. It gave us a taste of what to expect moving forward.”

The Orange County arts world, among

the hardest hit industries by the pandemic, is gearing up to slowly put their toes into the performing waters.

A year ago, the arts scene faced a shutdown that some hoped would last only weeks, with a reopening in the summer or the fall. As the pandemic dragged on, those hopes fell by the wayside, and their business models of gathering thousands of people to watch shows together fell apart.

The area’s performing arts community lost an estimated $121.1 million and 2,727 jobs during the pandemic, according to Arts Orange County, which recently surveyed 38 organizations. The organizations are estimating that it will take them until 2022 to see their operations and revenue return to pre-pandemic levels.

What follows are comments from six of the area’s better-known entities: