The United Arts Council of Raleigh & Wake County has compiled a handy list of local resources, many of them free, for people who want to learn or hone artistic skills while under COVID-19 quarantine. 

There are some legit useful skills on offer, including free online drum lessons from Drum for Change and Jeannette Brossart’s free tutorials on mosaic-making with household materials for elementary school students. But we were most immediately drawn to a perhaps less-useful but unexpectedly joyous lesson from the experienced movement educator and performer Sheila Kerrigan.

“I’m a mime!” Kerrigan says, then snorts a laugh. “Who talks!” Then she starts juggling scarves, and we float away, rapt and forgetful, into a world of hovering color.

As she points out, you might not have gauzy scarves on hand, but you can practice with plastic grocery bags. We tried it. It’s not the same as watching those deflated Pac-Man ghosts float through the atmosphere of Kerrigan’s bubbly presence, but it has a certain American Beauty-ish melancholy, and it’s something to stave off the old boredom insanity.

And we haven’t even watched her video on “stick-balancing” yet.

If untrammeled whimsy isn’t your thing, the UAC also has resources for creative writing, drawing, drama with Raleigh Little Theatre, dance with Indigo Bollywood Dance Academy, and more.

Contact arts and culture editor Brian Howe at [email protected]. 

DEAR READERS, WE NEED YOUR HELP NOW MORE THAN EVER. Support independent local journalism by joining the INDY Press Club today. Your contributions will keep our fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle, coronavirus be damned.