By Peter Dobrin and Stephan Salisbury: “It’s been more than six weeks since Philadelphia shut down… The absence of the city’s cultural meccas is acutely felt … but nowhere is the pain of absence more keenly observed than at the arts organizations themselves.

And with good reason. These institutions and organizations are hurting. For some, the coronavirus has brought on a kind of financial Armageddon. Tickets are not sold. Fund-raisers are not held. Programs are shut down. A $4.1 billion economic engine has ground to a halt.

The question is, can it be restarted, and if so, when and how? There are multiple answers to these questions, some of them grim. As Philadelphia’s cultural community scrambles for answers, we’ve asked several leaders to describe their thinking and their prospects.

… The Kimmel is planning on several possible scenarios. The first envisions no audiences through June, the second no audiences through the beginning of September. A third scenario sees some concerts and activities from September through November, but expecting lower-than-usual audience turnout.

A fourth possibility is that performances won’t resume until January.

The most severe possibility is that the Kimmel would stay closed through the summer of 2021, and open only “if you believe a vaccine can be available by then,” says Ewers.

Source: The Philadelphia Inquirer