Supporting artists

The British Council and the Ukrainian Institute have launched the UK/Ukraine Season of Culture, a new programme designed to support the Ukrainian arts sector.

The season, which has been planned since 2019, marks 30 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Amid the ongoing war in Ukraine, its theme is “Future Re-Imagined”. 

It will focus on the changing needs and priorities of the Ukrainian arts sector and aim to provide new opportunities for Ukrainian artists. A programme of activities, events, grant-funded projects, residences, talks, films and lectures will take place in the UK, online and in satellite locations.

The season will also support future Ukrainian artistic collaboration through a series of grants worth up to £30,000, based on the results of an open call launched last October.

They will include the development of residencies for Ukrainian musicians and dancers; theatre pieces that examine Ukrainian political and cultural history; professional development opportunities for Ukrainian journalists and collaborations with Ukrainian designers, photographers and digital artists for London Fashion Week.

The season launched last week at Sheffield DocFest with a display of artworks and screenings of Ukrainian documentaries. 

Upcoming highlights include Cheltenham Book Festival and the Kyiv Book Arsenal partnering for a special Ukraine Day event celebrating emerging voices in Ukrainian literature; a Ukrainian to English Literary Translation Summer School at the University of East Anglia, bringing together translators and authors; and a programme at the 2022 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival focusing on contemporary Ukrainian opera and chamber music.

“While the whole of Ukrainian society is affected by the Russian aggression, artists and creatives are among the most vulnerable groups,” said Volodymyr Sheiko, Director General of the Ukrainian Institute. 

“Ukrainian culture is a major target in this war, so it is particularly important to continue building networks and supporting the creative sector.”
 

A paper outlining a vision for the future of music libraries has been published by an alliance of music organisations.

The Music Libraries Trust, Making Music and the UK and Ireland branch of the International Association of Music Librarians hope Music libraries in the UK: a vision for the future can help protect access to and sustainability of music resources.

The public library network has been traditionally the largest and most cost-effective provider of sheet music, but they have been impacted by local authority budget cuts over the last 20 years.

The paper states that every music group should have access to printed music and recommends creating a national steering group, consisting of funders, operators and users, to explore how to integrate services and resources at a national level, and safeguard material when a local service closes.

Making Music CEO Barbara Eifler says work with local authorities and service provides has shown its is possible to “ensure a future for music libraries while relieving under-resourced local authorities of all or most of the financial burden”.

“We look forward to this vision opening up a conversation which will benefit all parties in the longer term and underpin the thriving community music scene for which the UK is rightly known.”

The Musicians' Union (MU) and Black Lives in Music (BLiM) are embarking on a three-year partnership to challenge racism in the music industry.

BLiM CEO Charisse Beaumont said the goal of the collaboration is to empower Black music creators and combat racism.

They aim to do this by ensuring quality music education is available at the grassroots level and by removing systemic barriers to create career opportunities for Black musicians which result in a level playing field across the music ecosystem. 

The partnership follows a BLiM report into racism in the music industry, based on a survey that found 63% of Black musicians and 73% of Black music industry professionals had experienced direct or indirect racism during their careers.

MU General Secretary Naomi Pohl says the research shone a light the areas where “Black musicians and specifically Black female musicians encounter barriers and experience discrimination”.

“We are really excited to work with BLiM on changing that experience and shaping the future of the industry.”

The UK’s first non-fungible token (NFT) agency specialising in connecting artists, art collectors and galleries is now open.

Ad Astra will help users create their own NFTs - original digital data stored in a blockchain - by providing them with an end-to-end service, including workshops to help understand blockchains and NFTs, as well as advice on creative direction, legal contracts and sales.

The service hopes to break down entry barriers facing artists that have the desire, but not the resources, to create and sell NFTs.

Founder and CEO Emily Wigoder says many artists, galleries and traditional art collectors are holding back from engaging with NFTs due to the cost, complications and perceived risks.

“This is exactly why we created Ad Astra. We hope to facilitate the dismantling of these boundaries to allow traditional artists and galleries to flourish in web3 and create NFTs that hold long-term value.”

The Mayor of London’s Culture Team and Creative UK are joining forces in an effort to tackle "systemic inequalities" facing freelancers in creative industries. 

The partnership will hold an event in July where freelancers and organisations working across London’s creative economy will be given the opportunity to test, prioritise and develop ideas for a more sustainable freelance model for creatives.

The guidance and ideas that emerge from the online event will be taken forward and shaped into a robust business case, as part of City Hall's Redesigning Freelancing programme.

Creative UK said the fragility of the freelance model, which the creative industries rely on heavily, was revealed during the pandemic when many parts of the creative industries experienced a sudden, large drop in their volume of work, with freelancers left unsupported.

Evy Cauldwell French, Development & Partnerships Manager for Impact & Change at Creative UK, said: “Creative freelancers working throughout London continue to face an unequal playing field, with many sadly choosing to leave creative occupations due to unsustainable practices. 

"We are pleased to announce our partnership with the Mayor of London’s Culture Team, with whom we are empowering organisations and freelancers working across London’s creative economy to create a more sustainable future for our growing workforce.”

A code of best practice for self-tape and Zoom auditions for commercials is now available.

Launched by Equity, it is the first of its kind for commercials in the UK and follows a best practice guide for scripted dramas released last August.

It includes a recommended two-day minimum turnaround for self-tapes, avoidance of anti-social hours for taping, and safeguarding guidance on requests for artists to audition fully or partially nude. 

The union hopes the guide will lead to improved standards in commercial auditions, which tend to be less regulated than other areas of production, meaning terms and conditions can be less favourable.

It follows notifications from Equity members of short requests for turnarounds on commercial tapings, often coming in late on a Friday and expected to be returned by Saturday lunchtime.

The union says it supports the use of self-tape and video conferencing apps for auditions which, it adds, increased during the pandemic.

“If used well, this can encourage a much wider and more diverse representation of artists to enter the industry, including those who live outside of London.”

Performance arts workers are more likely to experience poor mental health than their peers, according to a global scoping review published by Equity.

Led by Dr Lucie Clements, the review spans 111 academic studies related to mental health and wellbeing in students and professionals within the performing arts.

Two academic papers, one reviewing actors and the other ballet dancers, showed depression to be twice as likely in performers than the general population. A separate study found that 54% of musical theatre students reported a level of depression or anxiety that met the rate for diagnosis of a mental disorder.

A meta-analysis reviewing levels of anxiety in a given week found dancers (24%), opera singers (32%), acting students (52%), actors (60%) and rock musicians (90%) to far surpass the levels observed in the general population (6%).

Across the studies, a culture of unstable work, antisocial working hours, time away from home, and financial fears were cited as the main attributors to increased stress and mental health in performance artists.

In response, Equity has created a Mental Health Charter listing five demands.

The union is calling on producers and engagers to address the harmful impacts of precarious work, adopt relevant safeguards in the workplace and ensure inclusion of historically marginalised groups.

It also demands education providers ensure every young person’s training is conducted with dignity and respect and calls on the government to reform the Mental Health Act.

Equity General Secretary Paul Fleming says the charter puts the responsibility on those that control the creative industry: “They show that our demands for improvements in pay, condition and access to the industry aren’t just about our members’ material wellbeing, but their mental health too.”

A new digital mental health platform for musicians launches today (9 May) to coincide with Mental Health Awareness Week.

Music Minds Matter Explore, created by charity Help Musicians, offers mental health help and guidance and signposting to local and national support.

Help Musicians says the resource follows an increase in demand for mental health support from musicians in the wake of the pandemic. Calls to its Music Minds Matter phone service have increased by 34% since the start of the year.

“Sadly, two years of Covid have seriously disrupted careers and we would encourage anyone struggling to get in touch and find the support they need,” Head of Music Minds Matter Joe Hastings said.