Florence McCrae

When Austrian bass Günther Groissböck, stepped onto the stage to perform at the State Theatre of Hesse on Monday he was greeted with an audience of fewer than 200 people. Normally able to house over 1,000 audience members, Groissböck confesses he was left thinking “Is it because we’re no good?”.

As chairman of the National Museum Directors’ Council, Sir Ian Blatchford is accustomed to watching history unfold. His position, complemented by his role as the chief executive of the Science Museum Group, sees him well placed to comment on the future of museums once things return to a position of relative normality.

Earlier this year, the National Trust had hoped to welcome their six millionth member. Now, amid the pandemic, membership cancellation is four times its usual rate.

Fanny Pereire has spent over a decade in the film industry. Her work has feature on Ocean’s 8, Succession and Mrs America. Her role – to create art collections for the people who populate these imaginary worlds.

Charlie Brooker is well suited to the pandemic. After all, he has spent the past decade or so producing the immensely successful dystopian series, Black Mirror. Yet it is his satirical show Wipe which has caught the attention of the public amid Covid-19.

Marc Quinn is writing on a diary. Unlike most diaries, his is less on the memoir side, and far more an Instagram inspired ode to the Coronavirus era.

According to André Leon Talley, he has never finished a lunch with Anna Wintour. Indeed, he has never even managed to eat a first course, with Wintour suggesting “Let’s go back to the office” before the appetizers even arrive.

The BBC has felt the impact of Covid-19 as much as the next television conglomerate. A £125 million gap in their finances – a combined result of being unable to actively pursue licence fee dodgers, and a BBC Studios being unable to make up the difference – has left the station asking questions about the future of their channels.

Since countrywide lockdown, sales of Albert Camus’ The Plague have increased dramatically. Weighty tomes by Tolstoy and Proust have also seen dramatic increase in sales, however, the true best seller of the pandemic is Bregman’s Humankind, a book that argues people are, for the most part, good.

Oliver Rudland might be the greatest opera writer you have never heard of. At least, this is the view of Simon Heffer, political commentator for The Daily Telegraph. In his view, Rudland, is “one of our most gifted young composers” who has an “uncanny ability to write music that invited an intelligent audience in, rather than sought to exclude them in favour of appealing to a small club of insiders”.

Online shopping has become something of a sport of late. It is now possible to purchase socks, dishwasher tablets and the latest Pulitzer prize winner in one fell swoop. For the past week, it was also possible to drop $2 million on the latest it-piece of Modern Art.

Covid-19 has proven a need for national treasures more than ever. From Captain Tom Moore, to Gilbert and George, individuals are stepping up to the plate, providing inspiration and solace when we need it most. David Hockney is no exception.

The 104th class of Pulitzer Prize winners have done things a little differently from their predecessors. Indeed, doing things differently is part of their life blood – setting themselves apart from their peers to be Pulitzer worthy requires difference more than most. However, a global pandemic is bound to change the playing field, even for trailblazers such as these.

Since the countrywide lockdown, the Royal Opera House have seen a 60 per cent reduction in their income. As one of the most heavily subsidised performing arts companies in the country, the impact of Covid-19 has by no means passed them by.

You won’t find any copies of “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” nor “Charlotte’s Web” in Maurizio Cattelan’s bookshelf. No well-loved tomes of Roald Dahl or Judith Kerr feature in his collection. Indeed, Cattelan’s success has come in part from his ability to subvert expectations, redefining terms and bringing the great and the good of the cultural world with him.