Bill O'Driscoll | WESA

On The Soul Show this weekend, Mike Canton begins special programming in tribute to Davis, who Rolling Stone calls “The Trailblazing Queen of Funk.”

Labor Day heralds the start of the fall arts season in Pittsburgh. And in any other year, theater companies, dance troupes and other performing-arts groups would be preparing to pack indoor stages with performers, and fill seats with patrons.

It’s safe to say patrons of the local arts community feel much the same about the scene as a whole, which is closing in on seven weeks of near-dormancy because of the coronavirus shutdown.

The run-down Victorian house on Apple Street, in Homewood, might escape notice save for the historic marker out front. But its boarded-up windows belie its status as one of the country’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.

In an announcement on its Facebook page, the the Rex Theater blamed “hardships” and “uncertainty” caused by the pandemic, which has shuttered most indoor performing-arts venues for more than six months.

Small and mid-sized arts nonprofits in Pittsburgh are among the hundreds of groups who said they are still hurting because an online ticketing service has failed to pay them money they are owed.

A new grant-maker wants to help arts-and-culture groups in the region not simply survive the coronavirus pandemic, but emerge from it stronger, more diverse, and more equitable.

Are there ways to make public art for the socially distanced?

Less than two weeks into the shutdown, arts groups are coping in different ways, including creating online programming, from live and recorded performances to virtual gallery tours. But as the crisis unfolds, Pittsburgh looks unlikely to have much of an in-person cultural scene for many weeks to come.