It is interesting to see many of you identifying the arts as at risk. Idon’t know if it is ‘worst’ hit. It certainly feels like challenging times.
I work in the arts- run a medium scale outdoor participatory theatre company. All of our work is relient upon grants, and up until now all of it has been by it’s very nature public facing.
We were waiting for two major grants decisions in March when this all kicked in for projects that would have taken place through the summer and into the autumn. Both applications were returned unread as both funders ceased distributing funds. These are applications that took around a month to write, not including research. All this is done speculatively, so we were already out of pocket- that is something you generally accept in this work, as of course not every bid will go through anyway. You balance that up with other freelance work. However, it is still a kick in the teeth to not have your applications read. Had these projects gone ahead they would have led to employment for 12 artists/performers, albeit on a contract basis, and full time employment for myself and one other until September.
Arts Council England replaced their Projects Grants with an Emergency Fund, which we applied for and received. (Another round of speculative bid writing) This is allowing us to do the work to become a charity, which should open up other streams of funding (before you ask, it is not possible to operate on ticket receipts alone, and to do so pushes prices above what many people can afford- making the work more ‘exclusive’ ) which will also be heavily oversubscribed. We have also had a small commission to create a piece of online work, which has been well recieved.
So in the short term, we are in a good position and we have been lucky- we have little in the way of overheads, and are able to grow and shrink with little cost to the company itself.Personal cost is a another thing.
Long term, it is a different matter. At the moment there is no indication as to if/when audiences will be confident enough to come back, and when grants will open again. We will certainly be changing our model of working (though outdoor participatory work is being held up as a beacon of how things might work in the medium term) to be more community focused (a great little film about the work of a visionary company in this field Slung Low can be found HERE)- national touring will be out for a considerable time. It is however, incredibly hard to plan at the moment as everything is still evolving.
On the other side, arts organisations with large overheads, bricks and mortar, are in a much more precarious position.
My partner is Front of House Manager for a local venue. She has been furloughed, and is spending her time at the sewing machine making masks, the profits of which are donated back into the venue. They have no idea when the venue will open again, and in what capacity, and if audiences will return. Then there is the question of content- how touring theatre companies and musicians will get back on their feet after all this, and if they can, how will they bring their material safely to venues? In the meantime they still have the building to maintain, and the costs associated with that burning a hole in their pockets.
Many artists/musicians/performers I know are producing work online. The ones I have spoken to all admit that they find it fairly souless, a saturated market (how do you compete with netflix?), and very hard to get people to pay for. It seems a short term fix- we are all sick of screen time.
In the long term I hope that the gueriila form of outdoor work I have long advocated will survive (The Guardian seem to think so ) and reseach suggests that Joe public value arts outside of traditional ‘arts’ spaces more than content inside. Arts can be part of rebuilding community value and trust in what has been a battering few years- I just hope there are enough of us left standing in 12 months time to help this happen.
Enough from me- next week I am a roofer again. Hey ho…
