Category: issues

For teachers of the performing arts, seemingly insuperable challenges complicate the task: how does one teach dance and acting—quintessentially embodied forms dependent on human-to-human observation and whole-body involvement—when no one is in a room together? – Howlround

“First, you should know that neither group is on the brink of institutional disaster. The Playhouse has $10 million more to raise [out of almost $50 million] before the fall. The ballet’s project, according to the company’s web site, was 94.8 percent funded as of Feb. 25.” – Cincinnati Enquirer

Adrian Ellis: “The sector is economically significant—we have the data on all those jobs created; on the new investment the arts attract to urban areas; and on those high-end cultural tourists seduced into spending more, staying longer and coming back again. The sector is also socially significant and is, at its core, the custodian of the world’s material and intangible culture.” – Wall Street Journal

Yes, 50 billion-with-a-b. The package, which covers both small enterprises and the self-employed, “will come in the form grants designed to help with overhead costs like venue rentals and artist studios. Loans will also be available within the package to help businesses bridge financial bottlenecks.” – Artnet

It has not been an easy sell, coming at a time when many pillars of the economy, from airlines to restaurants to public transportation, are facing existential crises and needing handouts themselves. But it is a fight the country’s museums and performing arts groups are used to waging. – The New York Times

The money is intended to prevent artists and arts organisations from going bust, but is also designed to help them come up with creative responses “to buoy the public” during the lockdown. – The Guardian

Zach Finkelstein does not sugar-coat the situation: “The tragic irony of this crisis is that, in the post-COVID era, the person most likely to have a performance career will be the one that can last the longest without performing. … The most effective route to survival in the post-COVID word will require artists to build another set of marketable skills, with training to start immediately.” – The Middle-Class Artist

“After spending about $4.5 million that can’t be recovered, [the] Festival now must cope with a projected $756,000 deficit for 2020. (It did manage to avoid spending another $4.5 million that had been budgeted.)” No job cuts or furloughs are planned, and much of this year’s programming will be moved to 2021. – The Post and Courier (Charleston)

The economic fallout of the virus has made the disparity between employed workers and independent contractors clearer than ever. New York has a paid-sick-leave law, but it does not cover contract workers. Many freelance workers in the arts have high self-employment taxes and health-insurance costs; they do not have 401(k) matching programs or employer-backed disability insurance, or severance when work is called off. If artists have health insurance through a guild or a union, coverage is usually dependent on working for a certain number of weeks every year. – The New Yorker