Arts Council England Has Launched a $190 Million Emergency Relief Package for Creative Organizations and Artists

England’s public funding body
for the arts has announced a £160 million ($190 million) emergency
relief package for artists and arts organizations affected by the
ongoing public health situation. Arts Council England announced the
fund yesterday, sending out a strong message of support for the
country’s creative industries.

The additional funding is meant
to save arts organizations from going under, and includes a £20
million package designed to protect the livelihoods of individual
artists and freelancers whose incomes have been particularly hit by
the government’s partial lockdown of the country.

After museums, galleries, and
other cultural venues like theaters were ordered to close,
many have strugged to commit to paying all
their workers. While the
government has launched an unprecedented bailout for salaried
workers, freelance artists and cultural workers who have lost most
if not all of their income by being instructed to stay at home,
have called for greater support.

The Arts Council’s full package
includes £90 million ($105 million) for the more than 800
organizations that it supports in its national portfolio, which
includes the Southbank Center, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, and the
Whitechapel Art Gallery. A further £50 million ($58.5 million)
is being made available to organizations that do not get regular
funding from the arts council.

When Arts Council England first
announced that it was working on emergency funding, Iwona Blazwick,
the director of the Whitechapel Art Gallery, told Artnet News that
institutions that have moved to a box-office-sale income model for
ticketed exhibitions are “very exposed.” That said, Blazwick noted
that the Arts Council has been “incredibly supportive” of the
institution. The director added that the Arts Council has been
“proactive” in thinking about how to support “people in that
gigantic freelance economy who are very vulnerable.”

Indeed, the £20 million ($23
million) bailout for individuals offers particular relief to
freelancers in creative industries who were not sufficiently
covered by the government’s existing bailout package, which has
come under fire for not protecting so-called “gig economy” workers.
The finance minister Rishi Sunak has promised to pay 80 percent of
the salaries of employees (up to £2,500 a month) but said that
self-employed workers would only be entitled to £94.25 a week in
unemployment benefits. While some self-employed artists have taken
the matter into their own hands, organizing crowdfunding
initiatives or artist support schemes, a lot of creative workers whose projects were
cancelled have been left in dire straits.

The money for the arts bailout
comes from the Arts Council’s emergency reserves as well as from
suspending its grants program for national lottery projects—which
is often an imperative source of support for smaller organizations
and individuals—until 2021.

The artist Sonia Boué, who has
relied on these project grants for “vital professional support” in
the past, tells Artnet News that she was “initially devastated” to
see the project grants closed down. “I know how very important such
funding can be in making and sustaining a career for some artists,”
Boué says. “Coming on top of the lack of government support for
freelancers it felt like another body blow.”

But the artist recognizes that
organizations and individuals cannot actually create projects using
the grant model at the moment, and that the release of the funds
means that many more artists can receive the support they need to
keep going. Overall, Boué says, “this is incredibly welcome and
shows the kind of responsiveness we need right now.”

Among the criticisms the
emergency scheme has faced early on is that it is not clear exactly
who can apply for the bailout. Several artists and smaller
organizations have complained that the guidelines are confusing and
the application process potentially obfuscating.

The Arts Council says it will be
further clarifying its policies in a set of official guidelines for
applicants next week.

Additional reporting by Javier Pes.

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Emergency Relief Package for Creative Organizations and Artists
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