What can you do when a public health crisis threatens travel plans?
Cancel, maybe. Reschedule, of course. Which sounds pretty simple, unless you’re dealing with an educational trip you designed from the ground up. One that took 11 months to plan, $15,000 to execute and all kinds of fundraising to make viable. Oh, and you have to make a decision fast.
Then, all of a sudden, it’s not so simple.
That’s exactly where we were a few weeks ago, as the spread of COVID-19 started to engulf the United States and early projections ominously hinted at a peak sometime in early April — pretty much the exact dates of the New York Arts Adventure.
The annual trip organized by JMArts, the Jordan-Matthews Arts Foundation, was described on its website as, “Eight upperclass artists fly to New York City for five days over spring break to experience the pinnacle of their arts and learn directly from world-class professionals working in the city. The experience also provides new cultural and artistic perspectives that will shape their lives and work.”
But for students living in a small, rural town it’s even more. It can be a life-changing experience.
During those five days, they sit down for long lunches to discuss the arts with producers, Tony- and Grammy-award winning and nominated artists, and a prominent national theater critic who holds a Pulitzer Prize and often chairs the Pulitzer jury for drama. They experience Broadway shows, immersive theater and jazz overlooking Central Park. They encounter some of the world’s best-known masterpieces, in person at the Museum of Modern Art, and some of the city’s top street art on a tour — before learning graffiti technique themselves.
Many have never boarded an airplane. Some rarely travel outside the state. Very few have ever seen New York City.
In other words, it’s not just some random trip.
As students began to worry about whether they’d be able to go at all, one of them put a message on our group text feed, something to the effect of, “I’d rather go and get coronavirus than not go to New York, if I’m honest.” Was that hyperbole? I don’t know. But I’ve organized two of these trips before. And given what I know about the extraordinary experience waiting for the students, I was pretty much thinking the exact same thing.
So, canceling was only a last resort. But rescheduling something with this many moving parts is far more difficult than it sounds. The entire trip had to be deconstructed. Every single element had to be renegotiated: hotel reservations, flights, ground transportation, performances, restaurant reservations, tours. Even schedules of the world-class professionals who were setting aside time to meet with our student artists.
When could a rescheduled trip even happen? If some traveler can’t make the new date, could someone else step in so late, because the entire venture holds together only if enough people can share costs?
Can it be rescheduled at all — and at what cost? When you buy performance tickets, the sale is final and nontransferable, but might some vendors consider bending that policy, at least a little, given our situation? One said no outright, which meant we lost $900 for that one event, alone, but reconsidered and came back later offering to reschedule us for June. Oh, and for the record, we did have trip insurance, but very few policies cover this particular circumstance.
Then, as the public health crisis grew worse, Broadway canceled performances and smaller theaters followed suit, which was a sad development, but a break for us, because full refunds would be processed automatically, saving us money and time. We could go ahead and book new dates — which was good, but not easy as chaos spread through the travel and entertainment industries. Websites were malfunctioning. Customer service ground to a halt. One airline shut down its email entirely, offered no chat option and warned callers that their wait on hold would be more than four hours. It was a mess and probably still is.
Though we had to make a quick decision about whether we could make this work, we did. After three long days of nonstop work, some generous artists in New York wanting to spend time with our students and a contributor agreeing to cover any additional cost for the trip, so students wouldn’t have to pay more, we announced new dates. There are still a few loose ends to tie up. But when everything finally landed, the trip looked strikingly like it did before, just on different dates.
That’s not what we expected and from the outside, it probably looks like a fairly easy and quick change. Move the dates from April to June. Make a few calls. Done. But that could not be more wrong.
The good news is that the trip is back on and students can look forward to a life-changing adventure in one of the most exciting cities on earth.
The bad news is we’re not completely in the clear. The virus is still spreading.
Chip Pate of Pittsboro works as the News + Record’s special projects editor. He and his wife, Rose Pate, the media coordinator at Jordan-Matthews High School, are heavily involved JMArts, the Jordan-Matthews High School Arts Foundation. It was created in 2011 to enhance arts education at Jordan-Matthews.