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03/12/2020

Artichoke Music temporarily closing due to COVID-19

Artichoke Music, Portland's iconic music store/venue closed temporarily today due to the COVID-19 virus.

Bob Howard CEO of Artichoke Music, Portland's iconic music store/venue, announced today that it will close it's doors temporarily until safety returns.

Friends,

In the face of the growing worldwide coronavirus pandemic, Artichoke Community is closing indefinitely until the crisis is over. Starting today, Thursday, March 12th, our store, classes and all performances in the café are cancelled until further notice. There will be no open mic tonight.

 We already have had four artists cancel their shows this month at Artichoke, and several suggestions from the community that we consider closing. It is not business as usual and we do not think it is responsible to replace the cancelled acts and continue to operate. There is real concern among our community, and we are listening.

We are confronted hourly with information and most experts have come to 3 facts that we cannot ignore. The first fact is that, at least in the initial stages, documented cases of COVID-19 seem to increase in exponential fashion. 

The second fact is that this disease is deadlier than the flu.

The third fact is that so far only one measure has been effective against the coronavirus: extreme social distancing.

These three facts imply a simple conclusion. The coronavirus could spread with frightening rapidity, until serious forms of social distancing are adopted. Our community is among the highest risk populations facing this virus. We have found no measures that we can take that are assured to be in any way effective and we want to protect our volunteers and our community from the spread of this outbreak.

We hope we all survive both the virus and the temporary closing. We hope you understand. 

We are assessing what financial resources we have to sustain this closure and are working with our landlord and creditors. We are hoping for better days ahead.  It wouldn't be Portland without Artichoke and Artichoke wouldn't be the same without our family of musicians.

Please reach out to me with any questions. 503-232-8845 rth@artichokemusic.org

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