As it turns out, being at home isn’t that exciting, and we don't hate the company of others as much as we hate our own. Dallas institutions are offering us an escape from our own boring company and a chance to keep our minds engaged. Here are the best virtual events taking place now.
Art
Creativity Arts Center
The Creativity Arts Center has an ongoing series with challenges for hopeful artists, like learning how to draw or collage.
Dallas Art Fair Online
April 14-23, the Dallas Art Fair will take place online. Collectors and art lovers will have a chance to preview and purchase works from all participating galleries before the fair, which was rescheduled for Oct. 1-4, 2020.
Dallas Museum of Art
The DMA is offering a virtual tour of their exhibitions, Flores Mexicanas, and speechless: different by design. You can also search their permanent collection and watch lectures at dma.org.
Modern Art Museum
The virtual art series Wonderful Wednesdays takes place at 4 p.m. on the second and third Wednesdays of each month. The museum describes the project as "Modern educators lead a family-oriented project via a short instructional video designed in relation to works in the Modern’s permanent collection and the special exhibition Mark Bradford: End Papers." Visit themodern.org.
Nasher Sculpture Center
The Nasher is opening up their entire archives to online visitors. From magazines to art activities and conferences, there is plenty to do at nashersculpturecenter.org.
Pandemic Faire
Artists Ted Kincaid and Scotty Anderson have put together a pandemic-inspired online gallery with works by various artists during what will surely come to be known as their "Quarantine" period.
Sweet Tooth Hotel
Every Friday at 1:30 p.m., between April 10 and May 29, the pop-up gallery will be introducing a new artist with their Instagram Live Series WithFriends, which takes viewers inside artists' studios as they answer viewer questions.
Classical
Dallas Symphony Orchestra
The DSO has a wealth of online archives as well as their Live from the Meyerson video series at mydso.org.
Dance
Arathi School of Dance
On Wednesdays and Thursdays, the Indian Cultural Heritage Foundation presents the Arathi dance online classes so you can pursue your dreams of becoming a Bollywood star.
Ballet Folklorico
The Ballet Folklorico is offering a pay-what-you-can workshop for beginners, at 2 p.m. Saturday, April 11, via Instagram Live.
Dallas Black Dance Theatre
Members of the Black Dance Theatre post dance videos and inspirational talks. Watch here.
Danielle Georgiou Dance Group
Maybe you can create a silver lining out of this period of isolation by using this time to make you a better dancer. There's no cooler teacher than Danielle Georgiou, who is offering live lessons from 11 a.m to noon on Saturdays.
Education
Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum
The Holocaust Museum had a massive expansion last year. Now, they are offering book club meetings, lectures and even story time for the little ones at dhhrm.org.
Perot Museum
You may not be able to visit your family, but you can visit your ancient ancestors — or what's left of them — with a free virtual tour of Origins: Fossils From the Cradle of Humankind.
Sixth Floor Museum
Dallas may be closed, but that doesn't mean that your JFK obsession is over. If your life mission is to keep researching until you solve the greatest American mystery, you can find documents, the Zapruder film and all other pieces of the puzzle at jfk.org/the-collections.
Spark Kids
Spark Kids has put together a series of videos teaching kids skills that will keep them occupied for hours, instructing them on how to make stuffed animals, catapults and invisible ink.
STEAM
Are your kids into making stuff? Of course they are. Studio Bella teaches them to make a range of things from robotics to coin spinners.
Film
Dallas Theater Center
The Tony-winning theater group is offering classes on auditioning and writing by the likes of playwright Jonathan Norton. They also have a pay-what-you-can program.
Texas Theatre
You can still stream the best indie films, and support the historic landmark, by visiting texastheatre.com and buying a pass. For $12, you can watch the theater's film selection (now playing is And Then We Danced), which gives you two days to watch at your convenience.
Theater
Bishop Arts Center
The Bishop Arts Center is hosting s series of storytelling videos called Storytime at Bedtime, meant as a resource for parents who are, presumably, sick to death of reading Goodnight Moon.
Cry Havoc Theater Company
The Project Ghostlight: A Virtual Open Mic With Cry Havoc livestream will showcase submissions by North Texas artists (in the form of short stories, monologues, poems, an songs) and will take place at 7 p.m. on April 9. Visit https://www.cryhavoctheater.org/project-ghostlight.
Moliere's The Imaginary Invalid
The Classic Theatre Project will offer a one-man show with a reading of Moliere's comedy, at 8 p.m. on select dates, until April 18. Visit theclassicstheatreproject.com.
Ochre House
Until April 24, Ochre House Theater will be showing a previous production, Mrs. Haggardly, written and directed by Artistic Director Matthew Posey. Watch it here.
Shakespeare Dallas
The children's series Will on the Web, Shakespeare Dallas examines six of the Bard's plays through games like quizzes and coloring pages. There's a reward for students who complete all four sections for all six plays. Visit shakespearedallas.org/will-on-the-web.
Therefore
The experimental theater group will be livestreaming a performance called Cold Spring Pandemic Dream with Bird, which and will run for 10-12 minutes on Instagram at 11 p.m. Thursday, April 9. Tickets are donation-based.
