Government urged to develop live performance ‘crisis plan’

An international study looking at the responses of the G7 nations to the Covid pandemic has recommended that the UK Government and local authorities support arts councils in the four nations and development agencies to establish a resilience strategy for live performance.

The British Academy-commissioned report, Pandemic Preparedness in the Live Performing Arts: Lessons to Learn from COVID-19, says the performing arts face existential threats from a series of potential global shocks unless there is investment in resilience planning.

The researchers say global shocks, such as climate-related emergencies, political unrest, economic pressures, or public health crises, could all threaten the viability of drama, dance, opera and other live events, as well as their benefits to society and community wellbeing.

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The report suggests a UK-wide resilience strategy for the performing arts should identify representatives who can be convened into an emergency working group when required and focuses on learning from existing initiatives that supported the sector through pandemic crisis management, response and recovery.

It adds that arts funders and trade associations, in consultation with unions, should support their funding recipients and members to plan for resilience. It says this work should include guidance around emergency closures and agreeing access to emergency funding for both smaller organisations and individuals.

A resilience plan is one of five key recommendations made by the report. Others include commissioning sector ecosystem mapping research to identify sector vulnerabilities, developing a UK-wide strategy that gives creative organisations, individuals and audiences access to digital infrastructure, skills and rights frameworks and building a case for culture that emphasises its transformative social good and economic contributions.

“At a time when arts and culture programmes face extreme funding cuts across the UK, their value to community cohesion and societal wellbeing, as evidenced during the pandemic, needs to be better understood,” said Pascale Aebischer, one of the report’s co-authors.

Pandemic learning

The report explores policy interventions by governments and funders during the pandemic, as well as the individual responses by organisations, workers and audiences.

In a series of conclusions on the UK’s response, it says financial support provided by governments and charities that prioritised individual arts buildings and flagship organisations did not trickle down to help the sector’s freelance creative workforce and grassroots programmes.

Other findings underlined that the UK’s live performing arts “often lacked a representative collective voice”, said the pandemic “exacerbated existing structural disadvantages” and said major skills gaps opened in the industry because technical staff migrated to film and television, where greater employment security was offered.

In response, the other key recommendation set out by the report is to address skills gaps and recruit a more diverse workforce to improve the performing arts sector’s crisis response.

This recommendation says arts funders should coordinate skills and training audits with subsidised organisations, while trade associations and education institutions should work together to provide a bridge between vocational training and the skills required for the performing arts workplace. It adds arts funders should open professional development opportunities to their local communities, including freelancers, with on-the-job training.

‘Next pandemic’

Co-lead author at the University of Bristol, Dr Karen Gray, says that one of the themes that emerged over the course of the research was that “theatres are already having to face the ‘next pandemic’”.

“Whether it’s Broadway being forced to deal with the impact of forest fires in Canada, air conditioners stretched to their limits during heatwaves, or London theatres having to pump out flood water, we are witnessing significant challenges to the resilience of the live performing arts sector caused by the climate crisis,” Gray said.

“So, we hope that this report, rooted in the lessons of the pandemic, but applicable to a range of future issues, can offer all parties a constructive roadmap to protecting the socioeconomic value of the performing arts.”

The report also offers best practice examples of pandemic responses from across the G7 that it says could be incorporated by the UK in the future.

Examples given include Germany’s work to embed cultural value at the legislative level, Canada’s efforts to develop new models for digital accessibility and inclusion and France’s special compensation regime for performing arts workers.