The Creative Grind

It has been one year since the pandemic began. In this series, ARTery reporters spoke to individual creatives to assess the financial and artistic impact of COVID-19, on a granular level, in the Boston area.

Artist Shabnam Jannesari in front of a painting she is currently working on entitled “62 Sidney Street” at her studio space at the UMass Dartmouth College of Visual and Performing Arts in New Bedford. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

The Pandemic Surfaces New Cross-Cultural Themes For This Painter

Through self-portraits and portraits of the women she’s closest to, Shabnam Jannesari explores how the Iranian patriarchy censors women. But in the past year, she had to adjust her artistic...

Local Coverage

02:57Apr 7, 2021

Fred Mudge uses a tuning hammer to tune a Yamaha C7 piano at the Wellspring Studio in Acton. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

How A Piano Tuner Is A Barometer For Boston's Battered Music Scene

Over the years Fred Mudge has toted his tool kit to venues big, medium and small including TD Garden, Fenway Park, the House of Blues and the Berklee Performance Center....

Local Coverage

06:33Mar 31, 2021

International Show plays the piano at his studio in Weymouth. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

After The Pandemic Shut Down His Recording Studio, He Had An Epiphany

The musician and producer International Show was lucky to be able to reopen his Weymouth studio in May. But the pandemic made him rethink his priorities.

Local Coverage

06:12Mar 24, 2021

Artist Marla McLeod works on a piece featuring her niece at her studio in New Haven. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

Painting Black Skin, An Artist Navigates Success And Loss In A Pandemic Year

In a year of widespread hardship, painter Marla McLeod found unexpected professional success amid her private grief.

Local Coverage

05:06Mar 17, 2021

R&B songstress Sonni Mai in her home in Chelsea. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

'Damn, I Have No Money': Musician Sonni Mai On A Year Without Her Music

It's been a year since the pandemic began. In the first installment of the ARTery series, "The Creative Grind," singer Sonni Mai shares the financial and creative impact COVID-19 has...

Local Coverage

06:37Mar 10, 2021