Covid update – arts exemptions from quarantine and VAT cut extended

04 Dec 2020

Social media users have been pouring scorn on the Government's tweeted announcement of a new Business Traveller exemption. From 4am on Sat 5th December high-value business travellers will no longer need to self-isolate when returning to England from a country that isn’t a travel corridor, “allowing more travel to support the economy and jobs.” Transport Secretary Grant Shapps clarified that this includes “certain performing arts professionals, TV production staff, journalists and recently signed elite sportspersons”. Full details are yet to be released, and will be published on the Government website.

Playwright Dan Rebellato tweeted “Who needs some stupid vaccine when you can simply become immune to COVID by intoning the magic words “I am a high-value business traveller”? This theme has been echoed by many, accusing the Government of ‘Policy made by the wealthy for the benefit of the wealthy’.

Less controversial has been the announcement that the 5% VAT rate on admission charges to cultural venues, which was due to end on 12th January 2020, has been extend to 31st March.

York aims for World Heritage status in 2025

03 Dec 2020

A new cultural strategy demonstrates York's commitment to redress the effects of Covid-19 by embedding culture in the city's physical and professional infrastructure, its architects say.

£7m endowment to 'secure the future' of RSC’s education work

A man performing in a school gym surrounded by school children
03 Dec 2020

The largest Paul Hamlyn Foundation grant since 2006 will provide a sustainable basis for the theatre’s ongoing work, plus money to evaluate its long-term impact.

Research will reveal how the arts can support social distancing practices

03 Dec 2020

Academics from Northumbria and Brunel Universities are to work with resilience planners from UK cities to explore how art and performance could be used to establish successful social distancing strategies.

As compliance with social distancing regulations declines, new ideas are being sought to keep people engaged and ensure they adhere to guidelines. The research aims to understand how the arts have played a part in the public’s response to Covid-19, and how artistic practice and research could inform future hazard mitigation planning in UK cities.

Funding of more than £120,000 will be awarded by the Economic and Social Research Council as part of UK Research and Innovation’s rapid response to Covid-19 fund, which was set up to support projects that contribute to our understanding of, and response to, the Covid-19 pandemic and its impacts.

Dr Patrick Duggan, Associate Professor of Performance and Culture at Northumbria University, said: “In terms of social distancing, techniques such as using arrows and signs only have limited success – there’s a real need for imaginative ideas, creative practices and new thinking in the ways we’re responding to the pandemic.”

Dr Stuart Andrews, Lecturer in Theatre at Brunel University, added: “The arts are often used when it comes to the messaging element of public health campaigns such as social distancing, for example designing graphics or logos, but they are seldom used in actually developing the strategy behind such campaigns.

“This project will explore how the arts could provide new models for understanding and practising city life, helping people cope with social distancing in the long term.”

Both academics will work with strategic decision-makers in hazard mitigation, sustainability and resilience from Bristol, Glasgow and Newcastle City Councils, as well as with artists and arts organisations.

They will also explore performance practices which have helped people through lockdown and social distancing during the Covid-19 pandemic, such as Spanish dancer Albert Garcia who, when unable to dance freely during Spain’s national lockdown, performed for his neighbours each night when taking out his rubbish.

Classical and jazz artists are 'doing badly' from streaming royalties

Man with headphones and microphone recording on a laptop
03 Dec 2020

Fear of being excluded holds artists back from challenging the major platforms.

Theatre to deliver council's music services in groundbreaking deal

Woman with violin teaching young children in a school hall
03 Dec 2020

Permanent employment for 17 more musicians and a wider programme of music activity will stem from the transfer of Flintshire Music Service to Theatr Clwyd.

Coventry 2021 signs up to fair pay for artists

03 Dec 2020

All artists and creatives who work on projects as part of Coventry UK City of Culture 2021 will do so on terms that exceed the industry standard.

A new Memorandum of Understanding between Coventry City of Culture Trust and trade union bodies including Midlands TUC Cultural & Leisure Industries Committee, Equity, BECTU and Musicians’ Union commits the Trust to offering terms that ‘exceed those in recognised industry-wide contracts and rates’. It underpins a Fair Pay Manifesto that the Trust aims to launch early next year.

The Trust will also encourage its partners and stakeholders to engage with unions to create agreements for creative sector workers they employ.

Martin Sutherland, Chief Executive of Coventry City of Culture Trust, said: “Coventry 2021 seeks to leave a legacy of a stronger arts and culture sector in the region and that can only be done if the work of artists and creative freelancers is valued, both through recognition and conditions of employment.”

Testing isn't enough to bring audiences back, survey suggests

03 Dec 2020

Mandatory masks, social distancing and temperature tests make audiences feel more comfortable returning to venues - and on-the-spot testing won't change that.

Regional venues rail against 'illogical' Tier 3 restrictions

02 Dec 2020

Organisations and local authorities say its unfair and uneconomical to place harsher limits on cultural venues than gyms and hairdressers, as they trumpet their benefits to the nation's health.

Cash for visitor economy will boost creative sector in the North East

02 Dec 2020

A £16.5m commitment to the creative and visitor sectors in Tees Valley will be supporting long-term recovery by attracting new events to the region, growing local festivals, encouraging business development and boosting the region’s profile as a visitor destination.

The investment pledge has been made by The Tees Valley Combined Authority Cabinet in response to a projected 48% loss to Tees Valley’s visitor economy in 2020. 44% of creative, culture, tourism and hospitality businesses have reported that their businesses may have to permanently close, compared with 28% across all sectors.

Five local authorities are set to gain from the investment: Darlington, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar & Cleveland and Stockton-on-Tees. A task force, chaired by Annabel Turpin, Chief Executive and Artistic Director of ARC Stockton arts centre, will be providing sector-led advice and insight into the challenges and opportunities that businesses in these areas face. She said: “By working collaboratively we can make an even more valuable contribution to our local economy. Our creative and visitor economies in the Tees Valley are tightly linked so it’s fantastic that this new programme recognises and celebrates that.”

Former car factory to deliver creative opportunities in Coventry

01 Dec 2020

A £2.5m creative arts hub in Coventry will provide “a space for future generations of artists and creative engineers”. As well as being home to five of the city’s arts organisations  – Imagineer, Highly Sprung, Media Mania, Open Theatre and Talking Birds - The Daimler Powerhouse will focus primarily on outdoor arts and will deliver training programmes aimed at young people and people with disabilities.  

An arts National Lottery grant of £150,000 will enable a Vertical Dance Wall, music and sound facilities, plus essential IT and construction equipment to be embedded in the building, which was the first car factory built in Britain.

NT launches pay-to-view streaming service

01 Dec 2020

The National Theatre is making its archive of filmed plays available on subscription or for a one-off payment through ‘National Theatre At Home’, a new streaming service. This includes plays that have previously been shown in cinemas or were streamed for free at the start of the pandemic.

Plays that haven’t previously been screened will also be available and new titles will be added each month.

Executive director Lisa Burger said the service will continue “as long as it is needed”.

Entrepreneurs drive a new creative space for Nottingham

01 Dec 2020

Plans are taking shape for a three-storey, 7000 sq ft building to become a hub for nurturing fresh talent, offering skills support and collaborative opportunities to artists in Nottingham.

Five entrepreneurs – a venue and club operator, a community project producer, two events promoters and a digital marketeer – have taken on the lease of Fisher Gate Point, which was originally used as a factory for Nottingham’s Green Line buses. “Driven by a shared passion to nurture the creative arts” in the city, they are developing it to become “a place for creatives to test ideas, a seeding environment where they can access skills, knowledge and equipment.”

The building will include two recording studios, workshop rooms, an events space with high-spec sound and light system, a co-working space and a garden meeting space.

University sets out to achieve greater public engagement in music

01 Dec 2020

Aberystwyth University is consulting with the public about its music provision, aiming to spread the benefits of its facilities and expertise more widely in the local community. Looking beyond Covid, the University says it want to provide a varied and stimulating musical experience and share this with as many people as possible. The outcome of the consultation will be used to draft a vision statement.

Dr Anwen Jones, Pro-Vice Chancellor at Aberystwyth University said: “Whether you’re a musician or someone who loves music of any kind, we want to hear your voice… We’re open to engaging with new styles, new musical modes and methodologies and opening up new vistas.”  

New Edinburgh arts centre to offer opportunity to local artists

01 Dec 2020

A new community arts centre in the Craigmillar area of Edinburgh will be based in a 19th century Gothic church.

A partnership with the diocese of Edinburgh will mean the new Centre, known as Craigmillar Now, will be able to support contemporary local artists and their work, and present a programme of residencies, workshops, exhibitions and events. Residents in the area are helping to develop a local archive and the venue will also provide a home for this.

Pantos on ice as Tier 3 areas announced

26 Nov 2020

Several Lottery-funded Christmas pantomimes may have to be cancelled following news of England's Tier 3 areas.

Manchester Opera House, Bristol Hippodrome, Theatre Royal Newcastle, Regent Theatre Stoke on Trent, Theatre Royal Nottingham and Birmingham Hippodrome are unable to hold in-person performances based on the new restrictions.

National Lottery operator Camelot has been approached for comment.

Sector associations expressed their "consternation" that live performances will be banned in many parts of England.

Theatres Trust Director Jon Morgan described it as a "terrible blow" for organisations that had planned pantos and other shows.

"They will have invested in rehearsals and other preparations for reopening and will now find themselves unable to recoup those costs, facing further financial strain in what has already been a catastrophic year."

Musicians' Union General Secretary Horace Trubridge said the tier allocations make the prospect of work for many of its members "even more distant".

"The lack of consistency and common sense is glaring. These new tier system restrictions need a radical rethink if the live sector is going to see any recovery in the short to medium term."

Lottery sales recovery masks initial impact of Spring lockdown

25 Nov 2020

Urgent interventions made by Camelot to minimise the effects of Covid-19 on National Lottery sales succeeded in reversing an initial 18% hit to income at the start of the pandemic. By the end of September, sales for the first six months of the financial year 2020/21 were down by just 1.7% – a decrease of £67m. Online activity accounted for over 42% of all sales, growing by £455m to reach £1,619m.

The knock-on effect on National Lottery Good Causes was also minimised. £863.7m was raised during this period – £13.1m (1.5%) less than the same period last year. 20% of Good Causes money goes to arts and cultural activity, meaning a loss of just £2.6m to the sector so far this year, compared with last.

Announcing the results, Camelot CEO Nigel Railton declared the company was “enormously proud of this set of results” in light of “an unprecedented situation – with a sharp decline in sales, retail uncertainty and our EuroMillions game in jeopardy, as some of our partner countries were under strict lockdowns.”

 

Fears grow for the future of Hazlitt Theatre

25 Nov 2020

Local MP and former DCMS Minister Helen Grant has stepped in to urge Maidstone Council to save the Hazlitt Theatre. The Council is preparing to end its contract with the management company Parkwood Theatres in order to “bring the building back under council control so we can better manage the finances around it”.

Council leader Martin Cox said they would “review the re-opening of the theatre, under a new arrangement at a time when it is viable and sustainable”. But the decision by the Economic Regeneration and Leisure Committee to decide the future of the venue behind closed doors has raised concerns that it will be closing for good.

Over 7,000 people have signed a petition calling for the theatre to reopen and the MP has backed calls for the decision to be reversed and the issue put on ice until January, to “explore the options and take action as needed."

Staff snubbed as Culture Recovery Fund fails to save jobs at Fairfield Halls

25 Nov 2020

BHLive, operator of council-owned Fairfield Halls in the London borough of Croydon, made the last of their staff at the venue redundant at the end of October, just days after it was awarded a £2.5m Culture Recovery grant.

30 senior, full-time jobs there have been made redundant by BHLive since August, in addition to the 80 part-time and casual roles that were terminated in June.

Fairfield Halls reopened in September 2019 following a £43m refurbishment, which opened 6 months late and significantly over its £30m budget.

BHLive was awarded the contract to run the venue in 2017, but questions remain as to whether it has actually signed the operating lease for the building, which includes a 1,801-seat concert hall, the 755-seat Ashcroft Theatre and the Arnhem Gallery which is also used for standing concerts of up to 400.

A council scrutiny report reveals visitor numbers between opening and the end of December last year were 88,000 ticket sales - 26% occupancy against a business plan target of 45%.

Spending Review 2020 offers slim support for the arts

25 Nov 2020

The Government will more than double DCMS' budget but the extra funding all but vanishes in 2022.

Pages

Subscribe to News