Plea for arts subsidies to help the shows go on
The COVID-19 rescue package will assist small companies, but there are no measures to save a sector that is going to the wall.
Josh Chapman runs a small creative business called Subvrt that produces stage designs for music festivals and events for high-end luxury brands. The company, which he started with his wife and a friend, was banking on revenues of $2.5m this year.
With the tough new lockdowns on public places because of the coronavirus pandemic, Subvrt’s work has evaporated. Revised income for the year now is looking like $100,000, and the company has let go 40 people on contract jobs.
READ MORE: Arts leaders in crisis talks | Lights go down, but not out | Screens fade to black | Lyndon Terracini: The music has stopped
Chapman, who returned from a trip to Tokyo last Thursday and now is self-isolating at his home in Sydney, helped start the I Lost My Gig website to draw attention to the impact of COVID-19 on sole traders and businesses in the arts and entertainment sector.
As cancelled work on I Lost My Gig exceeds $280m and involves 500,000 people, Chapman says the government’s assistance for small businesses may allow him to retain some staff.
“Normally you have swings and roundabouts in business, but now there is no work in the foreseeable future for anybody,” he says. “Everybody has cancelled, it’s terrifying for a huge amount of people.”
Further closures announced on Monday include the Art Gallery of NSW, the National Gallery of Australia and Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art. The Biennale of Sydney will close from Tuesday and migrate to the Google Arts & Culture platform as a digital exhibition.
The $66bn COVID-19 rescue package announced on Sunday has several measures that will assist individual artists and small companies, but there are still no specific measures to save a sector that is going to the wall.
Unemployed artists and arts workers can access the JobSeeker Payment, which is increased by $550 a fortnight for six months. Small businesses with turnover of less than $50m can claim $20,000 to $100,000 to help them pay bills and wages. The assistance is available to small to medium arts companies, including not-for-profit ones. The government also has guaranteed 50 per cent of new loans to small companies.
Live Performance Australia chief executive Evelyn Richardson says the package does not go far enough and it will not help companies with turnover of more than $50m. She says the sector urgently needs an industry-specific package that will keep people in jobs and ensure there are shows to go on when venues eventually reopen.
LPA’s proposals worth $750m include cash injections of between $25,000 and $2m for commercial operators and a boost to the Australia Council of $180m to support subsidised companies.
“We are all going to share the pain, but we need that cash injection now if we are going to be here in six months’ time,” Richardson says. “We were the first businesses to close and will be the last to reopen. These next couple of days are critical for our industry. It will determine whether we live or die.”
Screen production also is grinding to a halt. Screen Producers Australia has identified 60 productions with combined budgets of $387m that are on hold. It estimates a cumulative impact on producers and associated businesses of more than $2bn, affecting 20,000 jobs.
SPA chief executive Matthew Deaner says the government’s wage subsidy will help small to medium businesses, but the industry also needs targeted assistance.
At a meeting of federal and state culture ministers last Thursday the outlook for the arts sector was described as bleak. No specific measures were agreed but individual governments have indicated more will be done.
Scott Morrison, announcing the $66bn support package on Sunday, said further assistance was in the pipeline, although he did not say which specific sectors would benefit.
State governments are coming to the aid of arts organisations in free fall. Queensland has extended grants for state-funded companies through to next year and has waived rent for those in government-owned buildings. Other states are expected to follow suit by offering rent relief or by easing the terms of grant contracts.
The Australia Council and the federal Office for the Arts will bring grant payments forward, and grants tied to specific outcomes can be used to pay wages or rent. The agencies are co-ordinating a weekly COVID-19 support group that will involve 16 peak arts bodies.
The impact of coronavirus is hitting hard across the sector, from individual artists to major performing arts companies and commercial operators.
Melbourne Theatre Company has closed two productions — Benjamin Law’s Torch the Place and David Williamson’s Emerald City — and has taken a hit at the box office of about $1.4m. The company has stood down actors in both productions with three weeks’ wages and casual staff members also have been let go. The Victorian government has offered companies relief from payroll tax, and MTC is yet to confirm whether it is eligible. MTC paid payroll tax of $688,000 in 2018, compared with its annual state grant of $485,000.
“We need a relief package, particularly for people who are immediately affected,” MTC executive director Virginia Lovett says. “People are hurting, people are anxious and worried. A lot of our staff are young and it’s a very uncertain time for them. We are working through models to try to be there for them.”
The nation’s biggest performing arts company, Opera Australia, also is showing signs of stress. Forced to cancel multiple performances in Sydney and Melbourne, the company last week stood down musicians in its orchestra on full pay for two weeks. The company has turnover of more than $100m and cannot access the assistance measures for small companies.
Indefinite venue closures and cancelled productions affect individual artists most heavily. Artists on average earn $48,000 a year, of which only $18,800 is from purely creative work, according to a 2017 study for the Australia Council. About 60 per cent of artists make less than $10,000 a year from their art.
The National Association for the Visual Arts has recorded 5500 events cancelled because of COVID-19, affecting 11,000 artists and wiping out $30m. NAVA executive director Esther Anatolitis says the weekend’s stimulus measures will help sole traders and small not-for-profit companies, which were not addressed in the government’s first response to the pandemic. But she warns that the option of drawing on superannuation is inappropriate for artists on low incomes with few savings. “We need to ensure we support individuals and companies now but don’t encourage people to make decisions that risk their future,” she says.
NAVA will host its day of arts advocacy at Parliament House, Arts Day on the Hill, on August 12.
While the aviation industry has secured a government lifeline worth more than $700m, the $112bn creative industries — close cousins of tourism and hospitality — so far have not seen such assistance. Cultural economist David Throsby says governments make a mistake if they do not regard the cultural sector as vital to national wellbeing.
“In straitened times the arts are a source of sustenance and comfort for people. To let it just wither, and not to see it as part of the essential services that are provided in society, is wrong,” he says. “You should not overlook that the arts sector as a whole is a significant contributor to the economic life of the nation and is worth protecting.”
To join the conversation, please log in. Don't have an account? Register
Join the conversation, you are commenting as Logout