Professionals in the Arts in this country need more than ever to unite under one banner, and speak with one voice. Our continued existence depends on it.
For reasons of public health, the Performing Arts will be the last industry allowed to resume work in the U.K. Many performances, festivals, tours, stage shows etc have already been cancelled, to the end of this year and into 2021. The people affected are the people who run your choir, who teach music to your children, who sing in your carol service, who play in the band in your annual panto, who build the sets for that touring show your saw; or who danced in it, or who did the dancers’ hair and make-up. They are the backing singers in your favourite musical, and the ones who point the spotlights at the star of the show. They are the people who write the music for your favourite TV show, who record the theme for your grandkids’ favourite CBeebies programme. They are the people who sing in your local old people’s home, who run baby music classes at your local leisure centre, who take a choir once a week at your local primary school, who played in the string quartet at your wedding; and the people who sang so beautifully at your loved one’s funeral.
They are the people who share their love of their art, and who are unfortunate enough to be in an industry devastated beyond measure by the impact of Covid-19. They are part of the fabric of your life, every day, and they need help NOW.
We, the Arts professionals in this country, need right now to speak with one voice to those in power. We need the nation behind us. There are two million people in the U.K. who sing in a choir every week. We need their voices of support. We need to communicate our vital, essential function for our society; but we also need to offer proposals of what we can do in exchange for support. We need to show ourselves willing to reimagine what the Arts in this country can be and can do, and willing to abandon our own special silos and areas of self-interest. We need to go to Government with specific proposals. And we need above all to communicate clearly this central point: back in March, the public health crisis demanded that the Government prevented people from going to work, and so it invented the furlough scheme in order to compensate people; the Performing Arts are still not able to go back to work. and therefore we should continue to be compensated. And in exchange, we can dig deeper than ever before, to make this society a better place.