As wave after wave of show cancellations began to take place, New Jersey Stage reworked the site’s event calendar to list virtual events until things return to normal. Each day has featured anywhere from 4-15 events ranging from live music performances to comedy, theatre, poetry slams, storytelling, and other arts events. Listings are free and available to artists and art organizations throughout the world.
“We maintained our regular event calendar for several weeks as shows were cancelled, postponed, and rescheduled,” explained Gary Wien, publisher of New Jersey Stage. “Eventually it became clear that no shows on the calendar would be taking place, so we modified our calendar script to make it easier for people to enter virtual events. Venues can still add shows to our physical calendar as well, but the virtual calendar is shown on each page of the site right now.”
Virtual events may be entered at https://www.newjerseystage.com/virtual and can be done in just a few seconds. Listings may include only the event name, event url, and the date/time of the event or can include a full description, photo, and links to various webpages and social media outlets.
“There are virtual events taking place throughout the day all around the world right now,” continued Wien. “One way to help events get notice beyond the artist’s regular social media audience is by listing events with New Jersey Stage. Our virtual event calendar has been shared by many arts organizations throughout the state, is picked up by the search engines, shared on our social media, and has people coming each day to see what events are taking place.”
Any arts organization or artist doing anything online from live performances to online classes can list their events with the New Jersey Stage virtual calendar. Listings are not limited to events held by arts organizations or artists in New Jersey. Since events are virtual, they are open to the entire world - so geography is not important.
New Jersey Stage covers the arts throughout the Garden State with a daily news site and a monthly digital magazine. Writers are volunteers who love the arts and provide original features and columns that cover music, theatre, art, film, comedy, dance, and more. The magazine is available for free at www.njartsmag.com
"We've had to change the focus of the magazine a little due to COVID-19," added Wien. "Instead of having much of the focus on events taking place, we are presenting a broader look at the arts with features on artists around the world we like, articles on marketing, and less time-sensitive pieces."
