This week: it's time to register for the 2020 Annual Convention and Public Art & Civic Design Conference! Plus, we're diving into COVID response and recovery from various angles, including PPP loan forgiveness, innovative audience engagement, planning for beneficial artist-municipal partnerships, and more.
Registration is now open for the 2020 Annual Convention and Public Art & Civic Design Conference! This newly virtual convening, happening June 23-25 from the comfort of your home, is the chance for arts leaders across the country to gather virtually and better understand the current health crisis, how we are responding to it, and how the arts field can move toward recovery.
The coronavirus pandemic continues to gnaw away at the nation’s arts and cultural infrastructure. Nearly every arts organization has postponed or outright cancelled performances, exhibitions, and events. Similarly, there is a great number of working artists who have lost work. Americans for the Arts continues its tracking of the human and financial impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the arts through its four national studies.
The coronavirus has had a devastating impact on America’s arts sector. Since the first U.S. case was reported on January 20, 2020 cancellations and closings are taking place at thousands of arts organizations across the country, and two-thirds of the nation’s artists are now unemployed. Americans for the Arts leads the three premier national studies tracking the human and financial impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on the arts.
Ninety-one percent of all local arts agencies (LAAs) in the United States have at least one partnership. It is one of the most prevalent and consistent strategies for LAAs to expand their influence and address community issues. A just-released study from Americans for the Arts, available as part of the 2019 Local Arts Agency Profile, dives into how, when, and where LAAs in the United States enter partnerships with for-profit businesses, government or public sector entities, and non-arts nonprofits. Overall, it indicates that while almost all LAAs enter partnerships, the alchemy of pursuing, setting, and sustaining those partnerships varies. At the same time, with a few marked exceptions, the goals that the LAAs and their partners are pursuing in those partnerships are relatively stable, regardless of the type of partner involved. Collectively, LAA partnerships are a common and useful technique for expanding the impact and influence of LAAs, particularly in efforts to address non-arts issue areas in the community.
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It's been a busy week! Catch up on the week's research news, including two survey results and a new one you can participate in. Plus: blogs reflecting on the COVID pandemic, a powerful story on cultural organizing, a webinar exploring how to navigate conversations on cultural equity, and much more.
During the last half century, the local arts agency (LAA) movement in the United States has flourished—with the number of LAAs growing from 400 to 4,500. They provide programs, services, and funding to strengthen their local arts and cultural sector, integrate the arts into the fabric of the community, and make the arts accessible to all. It is no surprise, then, that Americans are now more engaged in the arts than ever before, with nearly three-quarters of the adult population attending the arts and nearly half personally involved as arts makers. It is because of this vital presence that tracking the health, operations, and impact of LAAs is a matter of pressing concern. The 2019 Profile of Local Arts Agencies is our annual survey of local arts agencies. It focuses on a core set of LAA indicators—budget trends, partnerships, programs and services, and diversity and equity policies. I conducted my first LAA survey for Americans for the Arts in 1991; the one constant over the years is my ongoing appreciation of how LAAs evolve to keep pace with how their community evolves.
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Americans for the Arts reports that of more than 10,000 artists and creative worker responses so far to the new COVID-19 Impact Survey for Artists and Creative Workers, 62% have become fully unemployed because of COVID-19 and 95% have experienced income loss from COVID-19. The average decline in estimated total annual income per creative worker for 2020 is $27,103.
Americans for the Arts is partnering on a new international study to measure the mental health impact of COVID-19 and social distancing on the American public and is seeking volunteers to participate via online surveys. Everyone age 18 and older is welcome to be part of the study, and participation is fast and simple!
Americans for the Arts has released the 2019 Profile of Local Arts Agencies, an annual survey of a core set of local arts agency (LAA) indicators that is supplemented with rotating modules, enabling a more in-depth exploration into specific aspects of LAA work. The findings in this year’s study are based on 633 survey responses that were collected May through August of 2019.
The coronavirus is having a devastating impact on America’s arts sector. Since the first U.S. case was diagnosed, cancellations and closings have been reported at thousands of arts organizations across the country, artists are posting high unemployment rates, and organizations are furloughing staff. Clearly this is a distressing time for the country with more uncertainty ahead. When the crisis does end, however, the arts should be looked to as an essential tool in both economic recovery and reconnecting our communities. Getting people out of their houses and spending money again will be key to jump-starting the economy (70% of the U.S. economy is consumer spending). The arts also will create opportunities to heal the isolation caused by social distancing and unify our communities. The coronavirus toll is heavy, but the arts can be our great asset in recovering from the crisis socially and economically. This is why doing everything in our power to bolster the arts now will make our nation stronger later.
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The 2021 Annual Convention is our opportunity to gather and reimagine our creative field and communities. Registration is now open to attend the virtual conference happening June 8-11, 2021.
This week, COVID-related losses and challenges continue to dominate many stories about the arts and culture sector, but we're also focusing on hopeful opportunities for leadership and community engagement. Our three-part DIAL Labs series began on ArtsU; the free professional development webinars are for early- and mid-career arts leaders who want to hone skills for navigating the field. We also republished a conversation with a California arts champion who's using her dance studio and its deep community roots to keep youth and families safe and informed during the COVID-19 crisis.
Nationally, financial losses to the nonprofit arts sector are estimated to be $4.5 billion as of April 6 (up from $3.2 billion on March 20). Americans for the Arts estimates that nonprofit arts organizations already have experienced an estimated 197 million lost event admissions due to cancelled or postponed events.
The $2 trillion emergency stimulus package that Congress passed this week includes $300 million in economic relief to support nonprofit cultural organizations, museums, libraries, public broadcasting, and state and local arts and humanities agencies, as well as substantial additional economic relief opportunities for independent contractors like "gig economy" workers such as actors, musicians, and artists and nonprofit organizations and small businesses, including those working in the creative economy.
The effective arts advocate needs to articulate the value of the arts in as many ways as possible—deploying the right case-making tool in the right situation. Consider these “10 Reasons to Support the Arts” as your Swiss army knife for arts advocacy. Like so many sequestered at home during COVID-19, I write this while mindful of our challenging times, and yet inspired by how the arts still have found a way to permeate our lives. I have watched Yo-Yo Ma concerts online, visited the Smithsonian Museum with a click, and joined my neighbors for daily 6 p.m. outdoor singalongs. Even in this difficult environment, the arts are providing personal experiences and promote social cohesion (see tools #2 and #8 on your army knife!). While I am uncertain what we will look like on the other side of this crisis, tool #1 makes me optimistic that when it is time to stop practicing social distancing, it is the arts that will unify us.
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How do you sum up a week like the one the country has just been through? We at Americans for the Arts hope you and yours are keeping safe and healthy during the coronavirus outbreak. We are working hard to ensure that the arts and culture sector can weather this storm, together, and with appropriate and necessary financial relief from the federal government. Read on for tools you can use in this critical time for the arts.
This week, ArtsU is buzzing with webinars on the state of public art in America, artist-municipal partnerships, and ways your marketing & development teams can coexist and collaborate better. Plus, we announced a new chair for our annual National Arts Awards gala and a new series of Leadership Forums designed for arts leaders seeking intellectually demanding, creative, and open-ended learning.
