What comes next?
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It’s now been two months, almost to the day, since this country was placed in lockdown. This has meant that the public have been unable to go to libraries, museums, exhibitions or shows, although our ever resourceful artists and cultural organisations have responded magnificently. They’ve been busy engaging the nation’s creativity via every possible route, from Zoom to Instagram, from broadcasts on channels ranging from the BBC to YouTube, and by delivering physical art materials direct to people’s doorsteps.
Since the moment that lockdown began, at the Arts Council we’ve very much been in ‘response’ mode. We’ve been tightly focused on the immediate and acute challenge of keeping as much of our brilliant, and richly interconnected, cultural ecology afloat – from individual artists and freelancers, to libraries, museums, companies and institutions at every scale. This single-minded concentration has allowed us to work closely with ministers and officials at DCMS and HM Treasury, to use our government and National Lottery funding to launch a £160 million Emergency Response Package, designed to channel financial support at speed to as many of you as possible who have been most seriously affected.
Your early feedback suggests that this support, alongside the Government’s broader raft of initiatives, including the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme, has relieved some of the most immediate pressure that lockdown imposed. We’re grateful that the Government has been able to offer this unprecedented support to the cultural sector. But now, as spring turns into summer, we’re beginning to understand more clearly the depth of Covid-19’s impact on our lives and our economy, and to recognise that the end is not yet in sight. It’s sadly inevitable, at this point, that many businesses in many sectors, will be unable to weather such a fierce and lengthy storm. And there is no evidence to suggest that the cultural sector will be any different. We know that there is far to go, and that challenges and further losses lie ahead. So, it is critical that we take this moment as an opportunity to think about how we best use public money, from taxpayers and National Lottery players, to support our sector, and ensure that the many talented individuals and impressive organisations within it are able to meet the needs of their communities as we begin to emerge.
As I wrote in my last post, therefore, Arts Council England is now moving out of our initial response period and onto the more complex question of what comes next – and I wanted to let you know more about the thinking and planning we’re doing.
First signs of lockdown loosening
Government planning is also moving along. Last week, the Government published a 60-page document that outlined the first measures that will be taken to ease lockdown – and which included the first tentative mention of reopening some types of venues (read the document here). Five new ministerial-led taskforces have been set up to develop blueprints for how and when closed businesses and venues can reopen safely. Oliver Dowden, the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, will be chairing the taskforce responsible for the recreation and leisure sectors, and our Chair Nick Serota will be joining him in this important work, along with the government’s new Commissioner for Cultural Recovery and Renewal, Neil Mendoza (more information here).
In helping to think through the practicalities of re-opening and to develop guidance, the Arts Council, alongside a range of sector bodies and representative organisations, will also join medical advisers on eight working groups that will feed into the overarching taskforce chaired by the Secretary of State. These working groups include one on entertainment and events, one on museums and galleries and one on libraries. Through quantitative surveys and qualitative roundtables, the Arts Council, your sector bodies and DCMS colleagues will be listening to your perspectives and concerns over the coming weeks and we’ll ensure that they’re fed in to those working groups and the taskforce.
But for now, uncertainty remains and for some organisations the idea of getting back to business is still a distant prospect, so the Chancellor’s announcement that there will be an extension to the Government’s furloughing scheme until the end of October is welcome, with more detail on what that will look like for the period from August to October announced by the end of May.
Arts Council: Three Phases
Within this broader context, what does the Arts Council’s planning look like? We’ve divided our response into three phases, which seek to counter the protracted impact of Covid-19. These are:
- Response phase (March – September 2020)
- Stabilisation phase (Estimated May 2020 – March 2021. The beginnings of this phase overlaps with our response work)
- Reset phase (Estimated April 2021 – March 2024)
The Response phase has seen us launch three Emergency Response Funds. We’ve repurposed grants. We’ve announced that we’re developing a simple process to extend the National Portfolio for a year. We’ve eased funding conditions and, where necessary, we’ve provided cash advances of existing grants. Starting this month, the Stabilisation phase is all about supporting you to adapt business models and to reopen when it is safe to do so. And the final phase, which we’ve called Reset, will set in motion our three-year delivery plan for Let’s Create, our new 10-year Strategy, which will also provide guiding investment principles for us over the coming months.
We understand that the cultural sector is a complex ecology, in which each element is affected by different factors and at different speeds. The dates of these phases may overlap and aren’t set in stone – but we hope that they’ll provide some structure for us all to work to. I will provide you with more detail on this work in future blogs, but for now, I want to focus on one crucial element of the Stabilisation phase.
The sector’s financial situation
We know from our conversations with you, that lockdown, lack of revenue, ongoing uncertainty and the looming costs of reopening are having a devastating impact. The Government’s measures and our own Emergency Response funding have helped to limit the immediate damage, but they haven’t stretched to everyone, and they only speak to the present or the very near future. In order to begin planning further ahead, we now need to have the most up-to-date information on the full extent of the current damage, and to understand the scope of the challenges ahead. I have absolute faith in the ability of artists, arts organisations, museums and libraries to respond bravely and creatively to this crisis, in order to move towards recovery, but I recognise too that you need support to afford you the time and space to help increase the likelihood of success.
We want to do all we can to look after the people, and organisations of all shapes and sizes, that make up this country’s amazing cultural ecology. The way we can be most useful to you right now is to gather insights and data about Covid-19’s impact today, and what is required as we all look ahead. We’ll then continue to share these insights in our active conversations with the Government.
Over the next few weeks, therefore, we want to work with you to understand better what the needs of each individual part of the sector are now, and what they’re likely to be in future. We’ll be conducting further surveys – one of which launches next week. We’ll also continue to convene groups and to have conversations with individuals; organisations, large and small; and sector bodies.
We won’t be afraid to ask for your help and your insights. We’ve all had to face up to the fact that none of us will be returning to the pre-pandemic world: our sector will need to change. And we’re keen to hear from you on what the change could and should look like. It’s vital that we all work together on this, both as individuals and organisations.
We have heard clearly from DCMS ministers and officials that they understand the level of anxiety right now and the terrible loss that would be felt across the country if our vibrant, diverse and world-class cultural offer no longer existed. It’s vital to this country and to everyone within it.
I don’t underestimate the amount that we will all need to be flexible, to collaborate and to innovate so that we can jointly find ways of meeting the challenges posed by Covid-19. By working together in a co-ordinated way, by developing good evidence and by communicating it to the Government, we are most likely to receive the right support, at the right time. Imagine then the compelling story we could tell about how we brought our precious communities back together and helped to heal the emotional, social and economic scars left by this terrible virus. So, although the reality of our situation is both serious and sobering, I remain confident that together we can find a pathway through the many challenges ahead.
