News

Coronavirus is being blamed for the collapse of Southport Theatre and Convention Centre. Since 2018 it has been operated by 'caretaker' management company Bliss Space (Southport) Ltd, pending decisions by Sefton Council about its long-term future. For eighteen years prior to this it was operated by Ambassador Theatre Group.

With at least 90% of UK festivals being cancelled this summer, festival organisers could be facing refunds of up to £800m, according to the UK’s Association of Independent Festivals. It is warning that 60 of its 65 members could collapse under refund requests if the government fails to take “meaningful action” to support them.

Museums have been "quick and proactive in their response to the pandemic, shifting their focus to addressing needs within their communities", but systems must be reviewed and  restructured in order to weather future storms, according to a report by the Network of European Museum Organisations. Based on nearly 1000 responses to its survey among museums in 48 countries between 24 March and 30 April 2020, NEMO concludes that new measures of success should be considered, to reflect the way they have showed "solidarity and support for their communities mid-crisis".

Its three core recommendations are for economic support to stabilise museums' operations and keep their staff and structures alive; for acknowledgement by stakeholders that investment in digital services and infrastructures is needed for the future in the future; and for governments to support museums to become more resilient to future crises.

A two-year £1m storytelling project led by Robert Gordon University (RGU) in Orkney will be developing a digital platform to support small and medium enterprises (SME) in the creative industries in Scotland, Northern Ireland, Finland, Sweden and Russia. The platform will host trails, movies, information about locations and events, and stories that celebrate language, dialect and culture, economic heritage, traditions, history, folklore, landscape and archaeology in each country. Project partners will work with SMEs in their areas to stimulate economic development by bringing the stories to life through new products or services, which will then be mapped via the platform.

Elsa Cox, RGU’s Orkney Development Manager said Orkney’s strong history of storytelling brings “ large numbers of visitors to the islands annually, keen to experience the landscape and local culture for themselves. She continued: “Creative SME’s in the North of Scotland face similar economic challenges to those based across the project area due to location, distance to market and even lack of internet connection. With the potential to make it easier to do business sustainably in remote regions, the StoryTagging project has a great deal to offer locally.”

The project builds on the Orkney-based Trails to Tales pilot project which saw the creation of the Orkney Folklore Trail App. Developed in response to an opportunity identified by the local community, and in collaboration with local storytellers, musicians and illustrators, the app shares stories as part of a trail encouraging engagement with the landscape and distribution of visitors to ease pressure on World Heritage sites.

Three-quarters of Scottish Contemporary Art Network (SCAN) members lost on average half their normal income in April, and 29% of individual artists lost all their income. The actions organisations are taking in response to the pandemic include making staff redundant, which 15% of organisations said was fairly likely. 70% said they are likely to cancel programmes and projects and two-thirds expect to see a lower positive impact on the public. The findings have emerged from a survey of 108 respondents - organisations and individuals - working within the visual art sector in Scotland.

A growing number of people are anticipating visiting a tourist attraction in the next 3 to 6 months, according to a tracking study published by ALVA, the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions. Perodic waves of online research are being conducted among adults who visited at least one attraction in the UK in 2019. In the last week of March only 21% were expecting to attend within six months, but by the last week in April that figure had grown to 48%.

Relatively few people will be rushing back when the doors to these attractions reopen though. The research shows that only 16% expect to go back as soon as the opportunity arises, while 54% will 'wait and see what happens for a short while' and 29% are 'unikely to want to visit for a long time'. Fear of crowds and concerns about whether an attraction can maintain social distancing will be the biggest influence over decisions to visit.