By Abby Furman and Caroline Kilgallen
After two weeks without a city or county-wide mask mandate, downtown Winston Salem’s arts and entertainment industry and its patrons have mixed feelings about going maskless.
“It’s evident if you go out downtown, people are tired of the masks. People have been tired of the masks,” said Katie Hall, Chief Advancement Officer of the Arts Council of Winston Salem and Forsyth County, speaking to the relief some are feeling regarding the end of the mandate.
Winston Salem removed its mask mandate March 7th, 2022, which had been in effect since the pandemic began two years ago in March, 2020, with the exception of a short break during summer 2021. After nearly two years of increased social precautions, anxieties around the pandemic, and adjusting to new policies, there is now an attempt to revert back to normalcy.
The removal of the mask mandate makes protocols much easier to follow, simplifying the role businesses played as enforcers of the mandate, according to major players in downtown Winston Salem’s arts and entertainment industry. For some in the industry, this is a relief; others are not so sure.
Scott Spencer, director of the Stevens Center at UNC School for the Arts, embodied this contradiction. “Masks! Masks! We don’t need no stinking masks!” he joked, as he walked into the Stevens Center’s lobby, mask firmly in place. All staff members in the Stevens Center wore their masks, and there was a box of new surgical masks set out by the entrance of the theater.
The Stevens Center is owned by the University of North Carolina School for the Arts and is home to theatrical productions and symphonies, although independent productions are also able to use the theater’s space. According to Spencer, there were many times throughout the pandemic that performers had to put on a show with no live audience at all; each performance in 2020 was held virtually and the performers viewed row after row of empty seats. This is no longer the case — the tickets for Ragtime, a Tony-award winning musical, sold out for all three of its live shows in March 2022.
Spencer reported that arts patrons were very accepting of the former mask mandate. Many of the Stevens Center’s regulars are from an older demographic and masks provided, as Spencer put it, a “sense of relief.” Now that masks are not required, patrons are still coming out to see shows; however, many of them are opting to wear masks regardless of the mandate’s expiration.
COVID-19 has affected all sectors of the Winston Salem community, but the entertainment industry, including arts, theater, and nightlife, which traditionally require the presence of patrons in-person, were deeply impacted, as communicated by Spencer.
Nationally, the pandemic has rocked the entertainment industry. Many theaters, music halls, and event venues were shut down indefinitely over the past two years. Broadway in New York City closed its curtains for the longest amount of time in its history, with nearly 96,900 losing their jobs. Patrons, employees, producers, and entertainers suffered an absence of art and performance during the majority of the pandemic, as repeatedly indicated by those in downtown Winston-Salem and beyond.
Even with the mandate gone, some still choose to wear a mask. On a recent Friday afternoon, all volunteers and employees at the Milton Rhodes Center for the Arts wore surgical masks, with a box of masks on the front desk for anyone to grab. The Arts Center shifted signage from “masks encouraged” to “masks welcome” on Monday, March 21 in an effort to help patrons understand that masking is at their discretion.
In Forsyth County, with only 27 new cases on March 23 and CDC classification of “low risk” combined with national guidance from President Joe Biden and the CDC towards a mask-free future have helped members of the downtown Winston Salem community readjust to the idea of life without masks.
“I work at the local hospital as a nurse and the mask removal is going really well so far,” said Lisa Dustin, who was visiting the Arts Center with three young children, who ran around the exhibit showcasing the artwork of local elementary school students. “Cases are down! I’m really relieved; my kids don’t have to wear masks in school anymore which is so good.”
Between the quickly warming weather and no required masks, business in downtown Winston Salem will pick up — perhaps rapidly — in coming weeks, according to the Downtown Winston Salem Partnership.
“Each year, business in downtown is a bit slow in the coldest months of January and February,” said Jason Thiel, president of the Downtown Partnership. “As the weather warms up in March and April, customers can spend more time outside due to warmer weather and daylight savings time. With this seasonal increase and the removal of the mask mandate, we are seeing folks who are eager to get out and make up for lost time seeing live music and dining out.”
So, where will Winston Salem’s arts and entertainment industry go with masks and COVID-19 from here? It remains to be determined.
“We have to be flexible,” said Hall, of Milton Rhodes Center for the Arts. “We thought we were in the clear last year coming into summer and the Delta variant put us back under a mask mandate; there were certainly shows that were canceled. Omicron only caused additional issues. Everyone just needs to be of the understanding that this can change in one day just like it did back in March of 2020.”
