Staying home can be dull and it’s tempting to try and plan a road trip right now, but in many states, residents are required to stay put. While you consider potential summer travel, there are plenty of virtual experiences in art, performance, entertainment, nature and more across the South to check out.
ART
The PAPA Gallery in Paducah, Kentucky, has a Special Quarantine Challenge that gives artists an opportunity to use their medium to express their emotions in light of COVID-19. There are three categories of artwork: Quarantine Blues, Outside My Window and Familiar Comforts.
Download, print and color scenes from Oxford, Mississippi, including City Hall, a Double Decker Bus, mural, the square and a telephone booth. Tag @visitoxfordms when you’re done.
PERFORMANCES & MUSIC
Continuing with using art as a way of healing, “Encore” is a series of Ballet Arkansas performances. Tune in each weekend to experience shows by talented and inspirational dancers. You can also “Learn From Home” by signing up for the Ballet Arkansas online dance classes.
Montgomery, Alabama, hosts one of the largest Shakespeare festivals in the world: The Alabama Shakespeare Festival. The festival launched an online Play On! campaign to continue creating and providing programming to theatergoers. There will be a round of videos of beloved artists from the ASF stages who will share their favorite Shakespeare monologues, in addition to online theater workshops in building characters, crafting plays and honing audition techniques for kids, teens and adults. Shakespeare is an idol to the literary and theatrical world, and COVID-19 won’t stop ASF from celebrating and continuing his legacy.
The Crimson Moon in Dahlonega, Georgia, is an intimate venue for musicians. It’s currently closed, but free, live entertainment is available on their Facebook page.
Experience the sounds of New Orleans from home by live-streaming a performance of your favorite artist or musician. Check out the WWOZ Virtual Gig Calendar and tune in to one of these artists’ livestreams. You can also find the New Orleans Feel-Good NOLA Playlist, a list of over 50 toe-tapping and hand-clapping songs to give you a little boost.
MUSEUMS
The Museum of Discovery in Little Rock continues to ignite a passion for science, technology, engineering, arts and math by providing “At Home Discoveries.” There will be experiments, investigations and design challenges that you can perform with materials you probably already have around the house.
Take a break from the present and go back in time. Explore the history of Arkansas by visiting virtual exhibits at Historic Arkansas Museum and learn about the state’s frontier days. Explore how residents used to garden, blacksmith and wash their clothes before the Civil War.
Take a virtual tour of Cartersville, Georgia’s The Booth Museum. Videos will walk you through Western art, popular culture and American heritage exhibits.
Virtual tours and visits of New Orleans’s art galleries are also available.
NATURE
Zookeepers of Chehaw Park in Albany posts educational entertainment every morning and afternoon. The Cubs Program is a virtual viewing of the park’s baby animals. Zookeepers will take you behind the scenes to look at some favorite and loved animals in this experience for the whole family.
If you are free at 2 p.m. on any day of the week, plug yourself into Arkansas’s The Little Rock Zoo’s Virtual Safari series, where you can explore the zoo and meet animals as if you’re really there. The series goes live at 2 every day, and there are episodes currently available for the public to view on their Facebook page.
Check out New Orleans’ Audubon Zoo to explore the facility and meet the animals. There are feature videos of the zoo’s various exhibits, animal profiles for all of the wildlife housed at the zoo and a host of homeschooling activities and learning materials.
Videos from the Creole Nature Trail in Southwest Louisiana offer amazing shots of the coastal wetlands, wildlife refuges, rippling marshes and sandy beaches. Get a glimpse of wildlife, as the trail is home to more than 400 bird species, and available to drive self-guide at any time.
BEACHES
Experience Panama City Beach Florida via webcam footage. You can also take in the calming sounds of the beach’s shore, then complete your sensory experience by tuning into their Pandora radio station for songs from artists like Kenny Chesney, Dierks Bentley and Zack Brown Band. You’ll be transported to the beach in no time.
Check out other beaches in Florida as well. Below is a live stream from St. Andrews State Park.
Shell Island Web Cam
