News

UK Music Chief Executive Jamie Njoku-Goodwin is urging Boris Johnson to include live music in his roadmap out of Covid-19 restrictions.

The call comes ahead of next week's expected Government announcement on plans to reopen the economy.

Njoku-Goodwin said: “We are fast reaching a critical point for the live music industry. If festivals and large events are forced to cancel for another year, many will go under and thousands of jobs are at risk of being lost forever. 

“We are not asking to reopen a moment before it is safe to do so, but if our sector is to survive through this pandemic then we require urgent clarity about the months ahead and some indication of when live music will be able to return." 

Meanwhile, the Music Venue Trust welcomed Johnson's recent suggestion that rapid Covid-19 tests could enable nightclubs and theatres to reopen.

CEO Mark Davyd said the organisation “has already created the possibility of two pilot sites to host events featuring rapid testing and a range of other mitigation measures intended to deliver live music in a safe setting”. 

He said the organisation has been in discussion with the government since July around issues associated with rapid testing and other forms of "health passporting". 

Think tank Out To Perform and the Coalition for Open Air Theatre have sent an open letter to Culture Secretary State Oliver Dowden asking for the small-scale outdoor performing arts to be allowed to lead the sector’s return to live performance.  

As the rapid dispersal of the virus in the open air makes this a Covid-safer environment than indoor auditoria, the two organisations and many high profile industry professionals are calling on the government to let this segment of the performing arts, which has the  lowest risk of virus transmission, lead the national cultural revival and reopen after lockdown ends.

Whilst the media attention focuses on the major summer festivals, the scale, style and long lead-times of these events makes it unlikely that they can take place: but the letter points out that smaller scale and more local outdoor events could still go ahead.

It envisages that events could have a capacity of around 500 people and controlled seating, where social distancing could be most easily managed between household bubbles.
Signatories to the letter are hoping to engage in a dialogue with the government to put plans in place for this to happen.

The Government’s policy of allowing outdoor performances to restart in July 2020 following the first lockdown is estimated to have enabled 500,000 people able to attend small-scale events, generating around £7m in revenue.

Data from Indigo Audience research suggests people will be more prepared to attend outdoor performances in all seasons and weather than in previous years due to cultural starvation.  

A podcast by two accessible theatre companies is aiming to inspire confidence among arts professionals that they can build accessibility into their own work and practices, and that this can enhance the work of all theatre makers, not just those already making accessible theatre.

The Green Room, a 12-part video series described as “story-led, upbeat and entertaining”, features established and emerging artists, directors, writers, casting directors and creative enablers with a range of careers and experiences. Through the videos, their creators DH Ensemble and Hot Coals Productions – working together as Strive Collective – address perceptions that being accessible is expensive and difficult. By sharing these experiences they hope to empower all theatre-makers to be more confident integrating access in their work.

Clare-Louise English, co-founder of Hot Coals Productions, said: “It’s not about making your organisation more welcoming to a particular audience group; it’s repositioning access as an artistic choice, right at the start. It makes the work more exciting.”

Major arts and heritage organisations face a dressing down over allegedly trying to "airbrush" Britain's history.

Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden and Heritage Minister Nigel Huddleston have called 25 of the UK's biggest heritage charities, museums and art galleries to a meeting Tuesday, The Telegraph reports.

Leader of the National Trust, Historic England, the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Arts Council England, and sponsored museums will be warned to heed the Government's "retain and explain" approach towards heritage.

READ MORE: Arm's length principle at risk in contested heritage debate

Dowden is reportedly concerned after a Historic England review said villages were "part of the transatlantic slavery economy" and a 'Colonia Countryside' review investigated historic links between the National Trust and slavery.

The Government also plans to announce a 'Free Speech Champion' to defend free speech at universities and fine those that try to dismiss or demote people for expressing their views.

The Welsh Government has committed a further £8.9m to support creative freelancers.

The Cultural Recovery Fund money will grant an additional £2,500 to freelancers it has already supported.

Deputy Minister for Culture, Sport and Tourism, Lord Elis-Thomas, said: "The freelance sector plays a pivotal part in the Welsh economy and I am delighted we are able to provide additional support, which acknowledges the important contribution freelancers make to Welsh cultural life."

So far, 3,500 freelancers have been supported across three phases of the fund. 

The Welsh Government has also announced that it is planning to introduce a 'Freelancer Pledge'.

It said this "reaffirms Wales' commitment to involving the freelance community in building back fairer".

Campaigners hoping to save the Grade II listed Hulme Hippodrome in Manchester and bring the building back into public use have been enraged by the decision of its owners to auction the building with a guide price of £950k.

The Hippodrome, where The Beatles, Laurel & Hardy and Nina Simone have all previously performed, has been on the Theatres Trust's Theatres at Risk register since 2006 and both The Theatres Trust and Manchester City Council have said they would reject its demolition.

The latest attempt to sell the building is at more than three times the value it was previously put up for auction in 2017, since when it has stood empty other than brief occupation by squatters. While it is no longer specifically listed as being suitable for residential development, the auction house has indicted this might be possilble as the Council would not want the building to fall into further disrepair.

A 'last chance' battle to save the space has been launched by a local campaign group that includes the late Tony Wilson's son, Oli Wilson. Their aim is to see the building listed as an Asset of Community Value, making it less likely to be pulled down and ensure that it still serves a community use in the future.