Venue operators should be rightly angry that the Government continues to insist that social distancing is the main route to making their auditoriums safe, says Liz Hill.
The SAGE report suggesting that venues with adequate ventilation could be safe to reopen will be news to most – including the people running them. And that begs all sorts of questions, not the least of which is whether the Government is even listening to its scientific advisers, let alone acting upon the advice they provide.
Thus far it has failed to tell the sector that all the PPE and social distancing in the world won’t stop that pesky virus from floating around in the atmosphere... more
22 Jul 2020
Feature
A substantial new income stream for the arts sector can go hand in hand with significant savings to the health budget, says Tim Joss. But first we need to move beyond some widespread assumptions that are holding back progress.
22 Jul 2020
Feature
To future-proof the creative sector we must root out systemic funding bias against BAME organisations, says Kevin Osborne, starting with an equitable sharing of the £1.57 billion bailout package.
22 Jul 2020
Feature
What would happen if an audience was allowed to make a reservation for a small fee, enjoy the experience, and then pay afterwards, when the emotional value is highest? Kahlil Ashanti tried it out – and was very glad he did.
22 Jul 2020
Feature
Small theatres and companies are ideally placed to give their local communities a voice. But there will have to be new models of working, and funders will have to resist the strong pull to conserve the past, says Anthony Biggs.
22 Jul 2020
Feature
A generation of unrealised talent will be the cultural legacy of Covid-19 unless we use the financial lifelines the sector has been offered to diversify the industry and extend access to careers, says Tina Ramdeen.
22 Jul 2020
Feature
The CULTURE RESET programme is up and running. Richard Watts shares the vision – and the inspiration.
14 Jul 2020
Feature
The massive surge in support for the Black Lives Matter movement has everyone busily writing diversity policies, but more important still are some fundamental changes that can be actioned right now, says Sara Whybrew.
13 Jul 2020
Feature
R&D funding for artists is hard to come by, but Hannah Grannemann and Amy Whitaker believe emerging artist-centric sources of finance will offer important new opportunities that could radically shift the economics.
13 Jul 2020
Feature
The pandemic didn’t stop Music in the Round running the Sheffield Chamber Music Festival online – and learning from the experience. Jo Towler shares the outcomes, and the lessons for the future.
13 Jul 2020
Feature
Dance thrives on physical contact and live audiences, so how can the country’s largest youth dance festival move to an online format? Cameron Ball explains.
13 Jul 2020
Feature
The experience of running participatory work online has led Theatr Clwyd to rethink the whole concept of ‘reach’. Let’s use this moment to make the arts truly accessible to all says Gwennan Mair.
13 Jul 2020
Opinion
If ACE only distributes the Government's support package to the organisations they have a current relationship with, then 80% of the sector will remain vulnerable and large scale venues as well as small will be at risk says Michael Ockwell.
09 Jul 2020
Feature
Having flexed our innovation muscles in response to the pandemic, now’s the time to assess what we’ve done and use this knowledge to develop new ways of working on a larger, longer-term scale. The Audience Agency team looks to the future of festivals online.
09 Jul 2020
Feature
Covid-19 has only accelerated what was bound to happen in the arts world – the collapse of unsustainable economic models. It’s time to think again about where income comes from - and what we spend it on - says Alice Black.
09 Jul 2020
Feature
Conventional monitoring and evaluation isn’t always helpful in community settings, but with some creative thinking, it can become a valuable part of the artistic process. Sarah Cassidy explains how a new technique can transform the outcomes.