Category: issues

Everyone includes musicians, visual artists, designers, dancers and other freelancers who are part of Washington’s vibrant arts economy. They are musicians with no tour dates. Art handlers with postponed exhibitions. Actors, dancers and designers booked for upcoming productions that are now in limbo. – Washington Post

Warning that there are up to five times as many jobs in the city indirectly affected by the festivals and the tourism industry as there are directly employed in them, the head of the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce said, “We are already seeing quite a number of businesses in the tourism and hospitality sector fail. … I think we’ll see a second wave now.” – The Scotsman

The Canada Council for the Arts has announced $60M in advance funding to arts organizations that have approved funding from the 2019/20 season. This amounts to the equivalent to 35% of the annual grants held by all core funded organizations. The funding is designed to help arts not-for-profits meet short term financial commitments to the artists and cultural workers they employ. Ludwig Van

“The 20-year-old BPT, which has grown from a local company to an international ticket broker, handles tens of thousands of events around the world each month. But in the past few weeks, an avalanche of pandemic-related pressures swamped the company, overwhelming its systems. In a flurry of confusing event cancellations and postponements, BPT founder and president William Scott Jordan said, the company and its bank lost control of their financial machinery — together, they decided to shut down the account that paid artists and organizations.” – Seattle Times

“Imagine you are a small businessperson or freelancer suffering a deep financial loss as a result of your city’s lockdown. You apply for a grant from the government on a Friday, submitting nothing more than your mailing address, a tax number, banking details, and a legal form with your company’s name. On Tuesday, you wake up to find €5,000 has been wired into your account.” – Artnet

The Edinburgh International Festival, the Fringe, Book Festival, Art Festival, and Military Tattoo, which transform Scotland’s capital for the month of August, have been called off for 2020. No one knows what the coronavirus situation will be by late summer, but preparations are so large, lengthy and expensive that, the authorities agreed, the decision had to be made now. – The Guardian

“At issue is the aspect of copyright law that allows authors to terminate copyright grants to publishers. The putative class action was brought by John Waite and Joe Ely, musicians who alleged that Universal Music Group routinely and systematically refuses to honor termination notices. The judge is allowing a group of plaintiffs to move forward, but not without a pretty huge caveat.” – The Hollywood Reporter

Los Angeles is full of odd and quirky cultural enterprises, many of them precarious in the best of times. Mandatory closures that may extend for weeks, if not months, might end up converting temporary shutdowns into the permanent closures of some of Southern California’s most overlooked fountains of culture and history. – Los Angeles Times

As the covid-19 disease has escalated, turning New York into a crisis epicenter, the resolve of a multibillion-dollar arts community has intensified to try to temper panic and pool advice. And what was once a routine monthly call among 34 arts and cultural organizations that receive significant money from the city has ballooned into a daily emergency call-in with as many as 170 anxious arts administrators and advocates. – Washington Post