Arts Venue Reopening & Covid Safety in India & UK - A Panel Discussion

The panel discussion will be live-streamed on Kaivalya Play's and ACRI's facebook pages.

Date: 17 March, Wednesday

Time: 4:00PM IST / 10.30AM GMT

The goal of this panel is to facilitate a sharing of ideas, concerns and best practices around COVID safety and reopening measures across two cultural hubs of the world – India and the United Kingdom. We will have four arts venue owners (one each focused on theatre, music, dance and visual arts) from different Indian cities who will be joined by UK-based arts professionals to compare the arts venue reopening landscape across the two countries. The panel is being organized by Kaivalya Plays in association with the ACRI and will be moderated by Varoon P. Anand (Artistic Director, Kaivalya Plays)

List of speakers

Phillip Brown: Phill is the Head of Risk & Safety for SOLT & UK Theatre and provides a consolidated and effective industry voice to represent the collective interests membership in relation to risk, safety and technical management. The role provides him with the unique opportunity to have direct dialogue with hundreds of theatre operators, employees and other stakeholders such as HSE and NaCTSO. During the COVID crisis he has supported the risk management process for the “See it Safely” initiative, participated on industry COVID Working Parties tasked with liaising with DCMS to update the performance arts guidance and created the “Managing COVID Safely” training course to support staff in making venues safe and secure.

Arjun Sagar Gupta: An electronics engineer by education and a Fulbright music scholar, Arjun runs “The Piano Man” group. Widely reputed for pioneering several distinct brands under the group, from a musical supper-theatre concept in a jazz bar to an Eurasian restaurant, Arjun and his team have built successful concepts in the arts as well as F&B spaces. Currently The Piano Man group today owns and manages The Piano Man Jazz Club, The Piano Man Bakery, Dirty Apron and The Piano Man Events and Artist Management Company.

Catherine McKinney: Catherine is the Head of Finance & Administration at London’s Soho Theatre, working with the Executive on the strategic planning and delivery of all aspects of Soho Theatre’s work. This has expanded in the last few years to include a second venue in Walthamstow, North East London (opening Autumn 2022) and an active digital arm, producing films of live performance and curating a catalogue of work (both in-house and made by others) including the West End production of Fleabag, which Soho originally produced in 2012. Prior to this role, Catherine was General Manager at both Soho Theatre and the Almeida Theatre, and has worked for artist collective SHUNT and visual arts entrepreneurs Bow Arts. Since last March, Catherine has been managing a mostly empty Soho Theatre, bringing it back to life for filming projects and a very (very) short run of pilot performances last December. She additionally oversees all Health & Safety, administrative, personnel and financial activity, and is keeping everything crossed for a safe return to live performance this summer.

V. Ravichandar: Ravichandar is currently the Hon Director, Bangalore International Centre. He was Co-Chair of the Karnataka Tourism Vision Group during 2013-16. Since 2000, Ravichandar has been involved with pro bono initiatives with the State and Central Government on urban issues. Ravichandar has a Mechanical Engineering degree from BITS, Pilani and an MBA from the IIM, Ahmedabad with over 40 years of industry experience.

Farah Batool: Farah is a cultural programmer and curator based in Delhi. Since 2007 she has worked with Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan to create multi-disciplinary, multi-platform projects across South Asia in the fields of dance, theatre, music and visual arts.

About ACRI

Arts and Culture Resources India (ACRI), is a platform for knowledge exchange, information sharing, networking, and learning for cultural and creative industry professionals in India.

About Kaivalya Plays

Kaivalya Plays is an Indian performing arts and production company led by Varoon P. Anand as Artistic Director and Gaurav Singh as General Manager. They've actively collaborated with international and national arts institutions to create new work, foster networks and build communities through art. They are also the team behind India's first comprehensive study on Safety in the Performing Arts (bit.ly/kpsafety) and India's first dedicated program towards Theatre & Arts Management (kaivalyaplays.org/fellowship). You can learn more about our work at kaivalyaplays.org