Keyword: “DCMS”

Eco­log­i­cal weak­ness revealed

An inde­pen­dent review demon­strat­ing the severe impacts of the pan­dem­ic on the social and eco­nom­ic cir­cum­stances of visu­al artists reveals the diver­gent per­spec­tives at nation­al and local lev­els in Eng­land about what artists and the arts are for, and on how and where future arts pol­i­cy should be made and implemented.

Read “Grassroots call for radical change” in full

Arts Pro­fes­sion­al arti­cle introduction

Gov­ern­ment and Arts Coun­cil Eng­land were praised in the Covid19 emer­gency for fast imple­men­ta­tion of ad hoc strate­gies for finan­cial sup­port for arts and cul­tur­al insti­tu­tions and job reten­tion schemes for salaried staff. Despite the equal­i­ty and diver­si­ty rhetorics of the fund­ed arts, analy­sis of respons­es to the DCMS Inquiry into the Impact of Covid-19 reveal that indi­vid­ual free­lance visu­al artists will suf­fer worst unless addi­tion­al reme­di­al actions are taken.

Read “Artists’ livelihoods in freefall” in full

Advo­ca­cy to DCMS

This sub­mis­sion was made in June 2020 to the DCMS Com­mit­tee con­sid­er­ing the impact of Covid-19 on any sec­tors under the Depart­ment for Dig­i­tal, Cul­ture, Media and Sport’s remit. It con­tex­tu­alis­es artists’ liveli­hood frame­works and sec­toral artis­tic and eco­nom­ic oppor­tu­ni­ty, high­light­ing key chal­lenges and bar­ri­ers faced by this par­tic­u­lar sub-sec­tion of the cre­ative indus­tries. It evi­dences the dis­tinc­tive lim­i­ta­tions of short-term emer­gency mea­sures from Gov­ern­ment and the Arts Coun­cil to alle­vi­ate imme­di­ate Covid19 cir­cum­stances. Although arts pol­i­cy mar­gin­alised sup­port for artists’ liveli­hoods after the 2008 reces­sion, the exam­ples of artists’ indi­vid­u­alised resilience strate­gies illus­trate the scope and val­ue of sup­port­ive inter­ven­tions by pol­i­cy rel­e­vant to fore­cast­ing new strate­gies for ame­lio­rat­ing the medi­um and longer-term effects of the pan­dem­ic on this vital, dis­tinc­tive cre­ative indus­tries sub-sec­tion. The ratio­nale for struc­tur­al changes in imple­men­ta­tion of arts pol­i­cy and fund­ing is to remove known bar­ri­ers and bet­ter in future cap­ture and ampli­fy the assets that artists cre­ate for their own resilience and bring to social well-being over a life-cycle. 

Read “Support for artists' livelihoods in a Covid-19 world” in full