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An open letter protesting that “multi-racial, multi-ethnic, multilingual workers from low-income backgrounds” are about to be cut out of the arts sector has been signed by 300 artists, including several former Turner prize winners. The letter, in support of  Tate workers who are on strike over the 313 job cuts across Tate Enterprises, is demanding that the organisation uses 10% of the £7m it received from the government to stop redundancies.

Dance group Diversity, which won the talent show Britain's Got Talent in 2009, has attracted 15,500 complaints to Ofcom, the communications regulator, for a TV performance based on the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in the US. Ofcom told The Guardian: “We are assessing this content against our broadcasting rules, but are yet to decide whether or not to investigate.”

Train operating company Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), the UK’s biggest rail franchise which operates the Southern, Thameslink, Great Northern and Gatwick Express services, has unveiled 'Affirmation Art’ clusters across some of its busiest stations to raise awareness of the company’s ongoing support and understanding to those who may be feeling vulnerable. The initiative has been launched to coincide with World Suicide Prevention Day.

GTR is the only train operating company to have appointed a Suicide Prevention Manager, and its consumer-facing campaign involes a team of artists spraying motivational messages across station entrances and exits. Manager Laura Campbell said: “It is important to raise awareness of the support that is available to those that may need it and educate the wider community about the complexities inherent in mental health as well as suicide. The Affirmations Art campaign looks to do just that, in a subtle and visual way.”

The Wales Freelance Taskforce, launched during the Covid-19 lockdown to strengthen the influence of the self-employed theatre and performance community in Wales, has listed 87 recommendations to policy-makers for empowering the freelance workforce as the sector recovers from the impact of the crisis.

Its new report, Rebalancing and Reimagining, includes proposals for longer-term funding for individuals; an overhaul of current application mechanisms for creative project funding; and better investment in communities, like those in north Wales, which are regularly overlooked. It highlights the needs of marginalised people and those with protected characteristics, suggests changes to organisational governance, proposes that organisations and Arts Council Wales take more responsibility for the development and upskilling of freelancers, and puts forward strategies for developing and sustaining Welsh language work.

UK cultural organisations are joining Belarus Free Theatre’s (BFT) global artistic campaign in solidarity with the people of Belarus who are protesting their country’s falsified election results. Four of the theatre’s company members have been “jailed and brutalised”, according to co-founding Artistic Director Natalia Kaliada, “for simply defending their right to free and fair elections”.

The BFT is the only theatre in Europe banned by its government on political grounds and the European Union has stated that it does not recognise Alexander Lukashenko as president. The National Theatre of Belarus, the Philharmonic Choir, the National Opera and Ballet, the National Art Gallery and many other artists have been on strike demanding that Lukashenko must go. On 9th September – one month on from the elections – London’s Barbican, Curve Theatre, English National Opera, Leeds Playhouse, the Roundhouse, Royal Court Theatre, Royal Opera House, Royal Shakespeare Company and Shakespeare's Globe are lighting up their facades in the white-red-white colours of the Belarusian flag, to highlight the country’s plight.

Kaliada continued: “International attention and solidarity has never been more important and I am thrilled that these world-leading arts organisations will #StandWithBelarus… As a Company, we have been standing up for freedoms and against dictatorship for the entirety of our 15-year existence. It is our role as artists to give people space to dream, to think and to hope for a brighter future”.

A website and Twitter posts are sharing information about the campaign.

A poster campaign has been launched by Scene Change in response to Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden's 'Operation Sleeping Beauty', which purports to be getting theatre up and running in time for Christmas shows. The posters, saying 'This Is No Pantomime', are described by the scheme organisers as "an urgent wake-up call" in the face of the collapse of the cultural sector. They said: "Despite the government's announcement that theatres can now re-open, indoor productions and live performances are just not financially viable whilst social distancing is in place... 34 million theatre tickets were sold in 2018. Around 3 million of those tickets were for a pantomime. It is too late for this year's Dames and Sleeping Beauties."

DCMS Committee Chair Julian Knight has written to Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden pleading for an extension to furlough for the creative industries.

The September 3 letter, released on Monday, says arts and other organisations have "become hostages to fortune".

"While restrictions on activity and audiences remain, employees of empty theatres and closed leisure centres face no immediate prospect of returning to work.," Knight wrote.

"The decision to introduce those restrictions on the arts and leisure sectors was a Government one. The Government therefore has a responsibility to support these sectors’ workforces until the industries have fully re-opened."