Who could have predicted the year that we now find ourselves in?
At the start of the year as the bushfires raged, artists across the nation stepped in to raise much needed funds; only a few months later and it is the artists who are now in dire need, as venues have closed, festivals and events have been cancelled for the foreseeable future, and the creative economy has slowed to a halt.
The new challenges brought on by COVID-19 will threaten the future of the arts in Australia, but the crisis in the arts and the struggle for visibility for many artists and organisations started coming came to a head late last year when the word Arts was literally removed from the Minister’s portfolio (now entitled the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, and Communications).
Now many of us find ourselves recalibrating and looking for ways to simply survive the coming months, let alone how to remain vibrant and vital, and to engage with audiences or to create in a meaningful way while live face-to-face performance is on hold.
Since March, many many insightful articles have been written on the impact of the shutdown for both the present and for the industry's long term future with headlines like:
• Australia's arts have been hardest hit by coronavirus. So why aren't they getting support?
• Coronavirus has shut down Australia's arts industry but artists say the Government has ignored them
• We are witnessing a cultural bloodbath in Australia that has been years in the making
• Degraded and demoralised: the arts companies left behind
• Coronavirus: 3 in 4 Australians employed in the creative and performing arts could lose their jobs
• Artists shouldn’t endlessly have to demonstrate their value. Coalition leaders used to know it.
But while writing is still able to be shared and accessed in the privacy of our isolation, live performance, which is at the heart of what we do, is not as easy to transpose into our homes. In The paradoxes of trying to make art during a pandemic, Alice Saville touches on the magic of live performance, which is one of the things I am finding myself missing most.
"When a big group of people sit in a room together to watch a performance, magic happens. Their heartbeats synchronise, according to scientists. There’s a quality of attention and focus it’s hard to find anywhere else … Liveness is what makes theatre [or music] life-affirming, special, and dangerous in a metaphorical sense – it’s ephemeral, hard to censor, predict or control.”
Playing to empty venues and streaming concerts is a temporary answer to fill a gap while its still possible but it can't replace being at a live performance for either audience or performer. As Alex Ross wrote in The New Yorker, "Music is at heart a social medium, and it desperately needs contact."
So how do we maintain contact in this time of lockdown?
Many of us have found ourselves channelling energy into advocacy, and sharing the plights and stories of those who are suffering. Live Performance, NAVA, MEAA and I Lost My Gig have all published media releases which detailed the specific needs of the sector, and the community hasn’t been quiet either, with the hashtag #CreateAustraliasFuture generating over 900,000 responses earlier this month.
In mid April around 2000 people also took part in a great webinar put on by the Australia Institute, entitled ‘The Role of Artists & the Arts in Rescuing the Economy’ with Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, playwright Melanie Tait and Richard Denniss. I found it incredibly heartening to hear articulate voices speaking up for our sector and to see so many like-minded people in the same virtual space raising and discussing the issues at the heart of the crisis for the creative arts community. You can watch the webinar on the link above or you can read more about at The Monthly. Then NAVA began a series of weekly online workshops on Advocacy to talk about ‘arts, policy, media, political and public engagement’ which are generating some great ideas and conversation.
As for you as individuals, while you may not be able to see live performance right now, there are still ways you can show your support. There is much you can do to help and encourage music creators right now, including:
Listen to your favourite artists (and like, follow and share them) AND find a few new ones
Buy a track or an album to give some much-needed financial support
Make connections - find other ensembles, musicians, fans, supporters, or music community to talk and share with while we can’t share space
If you can afford to, don’t seek reimbursement for a concert cancellation and help offset performers’ and ensembles’ debt
Donate via Support Act or offer resources to support specific artists and ensembles who will be without work as the pandemic continues. If you know someone in need, ask what you can do.
In this time of isolation, take time to contact your favourite groups and artists and tell them why you value what they do or which tracks you love
Contact someone about commissioning a new work and give them a focus and creative project in these very lean months. If you've never done it before, that doesn't matter. Just start a conversation!
You can read some helpful words from Andy Ford about commissioning (and other ways to support artists) here and a reflection on his own first COVID commission). If you need more incentive, he has also put up a short video about what he’s doing to support Australian art-makers.
You can also be an advocate and write to your local members, the Arts Minister, the Treasurer or the PM to express your concerns. They need to hear why it affects you. Now, while we are all turning to the arts - music, film, theatre, writing, visual arts and more - to get us through this crisis, is a great time to remind those in government that the arts matter to a healthy percentage of the voting public, and that a strong arts community helps us create a more engaged and vibrant society.
In the midst of this crisis, I am thankful for the many who are standing up and speaking out strongly for artists and advocating and assisting those in real need, those reaching out in so many ways to support each other and those finding new ways to create and develop art in new ways (often learning a bunch of new skills on the fly to do so) despite our physical isolation. It is great to see a series of online performance initiatives such as the Melbourne Digital Concert Hall that have sprung up. Limelight, Artshub, ABC and others have been generating great online content lists to help you keep track of what is available to see and hear. Many new commissioning initiatives have also been established such as Australian Music Centre’s Peggy Glanville-Hicks commissions and the ABC Fresh Start Fund.
While there have been so many positives, I have also been deeply saddened to read so many personal stories of hardship and loss in recent weeks (including those organisations who lost their 4-year funding in the most recent Australia Council grants round), of despondency, anger and shock as the ramifications of the shutdown of our industry are unfolding. The difficult reality is the sector - and especially those individuals who are casual, freelancing, on short-term contracts or small groups who were already functioning on shoestring budgets - will not make it through this crisis without the support of government and community.
We don’t know how long this crisis will last but we do know that the arts will return, in one form or another. Throughout this time, I keep returning to the article by Alice Saville:
"Finding the headspace to be truly creative feels impossible at the moment, especially when the target is as massive as ‘replicating liveness online’. It feels like everyone I know is simultaneously experiencing the kind of crises you only get once a decade, all at once, encompassing employment, family, anxiety, housing, sickness. Everyone’s coping mechanisms are suddenly uncomfortably visible as they scramble to distract themselves with frantic activity, or retreat into quiet mourning."
We are all experiencing this time differently, and while I am amazed by some of the fantastic and creative work that has been produced in response or in spite of this crisis, there are also those who are quietly reflecting and taking stock as we consider what may be next.
The best way I have felt able to stay connected recently is through writing short social media posts and if you head to Halcyon’s Facebook page you can catch up with the many thoughts and articles I’ve been sharing there. Or use your time of isolation to dive into the concert archive and curated playlists (including the In Conversation With… interview series) on Youtube or take a look around the website and explore recordings, resources and more.
Remember and treasure the art and art-makers that have been significant for you during this lockdown, and show your support by tuning in, listening, buying and encouraging them, as well as feeding yourself with art that inspires you.
Postscript - 14th May
Since this was posted there have been other excellent and sobering articles on this topic. Click on the links to read more.
Arts funding: a survey of destruction
NSW must protect its crucial arts institutions
As young artists watch their dreams vanish, our cultural democracy is in peril
