Edward P. Gallagher, MT-BC
Getting Through the Pandemic: Flexibility, Pivoting, and Grace
The profession of music therapy has a robust curriculum and solid documents providing professional guidelines and requirements. Yet, everything and nothing prepared music therapy practitioners, educators, and researchers for this global pandemic. In this podcast, Edward Gallagher offers a glimpse into the Beck Center for the Arts’ programming and service delivery during COVID-19. He says, “We had to unlearn everything we knew. Everything what comes along with a robust curriculum we had to change – close proximity, taking turns, working together, social skills…” Edward shares how his team pivoted by immediately creating 40+ video-recorded art activities meeting the needs of the community and predicts that telehealth will accompany in-person music therapy services in the future.
Resources:
- Event Safety Alliance. (2020). The Event Safety Alliance reopening guide. https://www.eventsafetyalliance.org/esa-reopening-guide
- Arts Cleveland. (2020). Reopening guidance for live music venues.https://artscleveland.org/reopening-guidance-for-live-music-venues-now-available/
- American Choral Directors Association. (2020). COVID-19 response committee report. https://acda.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/ACDA-COVID-19-Committee-Report.pdf
- Ohio Department of Health. (n.d.). Corornavirus (COVID-19). https://coronavirus.ohio.gov/wps/portal/gov/covid-19/responsible-restart-ohio/
- This is Cleveland. (n.d.). https://www.thisiscleveland.com/clean-committed
About the Interviewee:
Ed Gallagher, MT-BC is the Director of Education at Beck Center for the Arts in Lakewood, Ohio, where he founded the Creative Arts Therapies program in 1994. “Pandemic programming was not part of the curriculum,” says Ed Gallagher. Yet, during the COVID-19 pandemic, he mobilized his team to continue with viable and safe services to the Cleveland community.
Contact: egallagher@beckcenter.org
Suggested Citation:
Humpal, M. (2021, May 21). Getting through the pandemic–Flexibility, pivoting, and grace: An interview with Edward Gallagher [Audio podcast]. imagine. www.imagine.musictherapy.biz