CLARIFICATION: Due to source error, the article previously misstated the limitations of CPA at Home. The program is not limited to performing arts-related things. The article has been updated to reflect the change.
In an effort to continue to connect with the community, Carolina Performing Arts has launched CPA at Home, a new initiative in which CPA will post content related to its canceled spring season to its website. The website will be updated every week.
To learn more about the CPA at Home program, writer Dominick Ferrara spoke with Christina Rodriguez, associate director of marketing and communications for CPA.
The Daily Tar Heel: Why did CPA want to continue producing and sharing content during this pandemic?
Christina Rodriguez: The heart of our mission is creating arts experiences and sharing them with people in the art community. It really felt like an imperative. That's the work that we do and we feel a need to keep doing that work, despite changing circumstances, so it was really a matter of adapting to the situation and continuing to be the CPA that people know and has existed for 15 seasons at UNC-Chapel Hill. It's just a different CPA for now.
DTH: What kinds of content are part of the CPA at Home initiative?
CR: It's definitely evolving, as is everything right now. We've kicked it off with these two components, which are "artists at home" and "staff at home." The artists' section will feature content for all the performances that we unfortunately had to cancel in our spring season. You'll find everything from videos artists have created just for us from their homes, to Spotify playlists. One of the things you'll see up there, from the Mitsuko Uchida and Mahler Chamber Orchestra performance that was canceled, is a playlist of Mitsuko playing all of the Mozart pieces she was meant to play with us in March. We've also uploaded our program notes for that performance. If you wanted to, you can sit and listen and follow along in the program notes as you might if you were listening to her live in Memorial Hall. We're also ramping up our staff highlights, both on CPA at Home and on our social media to give a peek behind the curtain at what our staff is up to. It will continue to evolve, and we hope to have some artist live stream and things like that that will come about soon.
DTH: How does the #CPAatHome hashtag play into this program?
CR: It's a nice way for us to keep track of things on social media. We'll be tagging all of our posts that are relevant to this across our social media channels. Our hope is that as our artists are involved or other people are involved in our different communities that they'll use that hashtag too. We're also interested in seeing art that people are creating themselves at home, whether they're professional artists or not. It's something we'd love to see and love to be able to repost.
