The Arizona Theatre Company produces a podcast, "Hang and Focus," that discusses all things theater with directors, playwrights, actors and others in the business. A recent episode took a deep dive into what is in store for the arts as the pandemic continues.

The theater company’s Artistic Director Sean Daniels spoke with two guests: Jaime Dempsey, executive director of the Arizona Commission on the Arts, and Mitch Menchaca, executive director of the city of Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture. On the podcast, Menchaca said the arts will survive, but some organizations that support those creative outlets may not.

“The model of organizations for those that do survive are going to have to change. I think that budgets are going to shrink, I think that how we present things is going to be different,” Menchaca said.

Dempsey said this crisis is a good time to address fiscal durability in the arts. On the podcast, she said many local arts institutions do not have enough capital to handle a crisis, and she wants to build new structures that would allow for more opportunities and equitable pay. 

“There are a whole lot of things that weren’t working. Right, that haven’t been working for a long time and do not need to be brought with us into whatever we make together on the other side of this,.” Dempsey said.

Right now, the Arizona Theatre Company is producing a lot of online content and Daniels says even after the pandemic, the online world will continue to be a part of the theater.