The Guardian view on arts in a pandemic: harness their power
The situation for the performing arts in the UK is deteriorating. There is no prospect of theatres and concert halls being able to resume work fully this year. Though the government’s £1.57bn rescue package will save a number of organisations from permanent closure, individuals are being rapidly sacrificed in order to preserve institutions: so far there are 5,000 job losses in theatre, up by 2,000 from early July, according to the arts union, Bectu. Latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show that 57% of the arts and entertainment workforce are furloughed, the highest proportion of any industry surveyed. The scheme is due to end in October, long before there is any likelihood of resumption of full trading in the performing arts.
The logical outcome – unless the government steps in and extends the scheme, which it certainly should – is that there will be a wave of job losses in the autumn. Meanwhile almost a third of arts organisations say they have less than three months’ cash left. All this is before even starting to consider the freelance artists, producers and technicians who make the work we see on stages and concert platforms: the Musicians’ Union and Association of British Orchestras are rightly pressing the government to extend help for self-employed people, which covers only six months’ worth of lost income.
The other side of this bleak picture, however, is the capacity of the British arts to adapt and act. If you want to get something done, ask a theatre – where making complex things happen on a deadline and a shoestring is the norm. The pandemic has seen thousands of organisations and artists redirecting their skills towards the needs of the crisis. In Newcastle upon Tyne, Northern Stage has been delivering “doorstep music” to households in Byker. The stage of the theatre at Eden Court, Inverness, is now a humanitarian aid centre where 1,000 food parcels are packed every week. Museums and galleries everywhere – from Bradford and Cambridge to Dundee and Exeter – have been sending creative activity packs to families. The Old Courts arts centre in Wigan has been making “isolation calls” to those who are lonely. Home Slough has been sending musicians to play concerts outside care homes. The Birmingham Repertory theatre has turned over its restaurant kitchen to making 1,500 meals a week for the vulnerable. In London, English National Opera is working with Imperial College Healthcare, using lullabies to help Covid-19 patients recover from breathing problems. This is only a fraction of the work that is going on – you could cover a map of Britain with such activities.
The arts’ capacity to serve communities – both practically and spiritually – should be embraced. Few in the arts expect to be supported for nothing; they want to work, and they want to be useful. In June, Boris Johnson noisily referenced Roosevelt’s New Deal, which – among its other achievements in a depression-hit US – employed thousands of artists, authors, composers and playwrights (figures including Dorothea Lange, Zora Neale Hurston, Walker Evans and Aaron Copland). This was not just because, “Hell, they’ve got to eat just like other people”, as Harry Hopkins, who ran several of the relief programmes in the 1930s, put it. It was understood that artists could help provide a vision of US culture that a nation in trouble could rally behind. The New Deal was of its time, but the principle remains intact. The arts can help Britain heal – they are only waiting to be fully harnessed.
