The arts sector is bleeding out – COVID-19 is killing us. We are the most significantly affected industry, first to close, last to go back. It’s harder and sometimes impossible for us to adapt, and the federal government clearly couldn’t give a shit. One miner is worth 100 musicians. It’s no surprise we’ve been forgotten. The arts sector tends to be politically left wing. They tend to critique government policy. They’re creative and difficult. They don’t wear suits. The government of white men in suits hate the arts.
To them we’re weirdos.
Don’t worry. It’s mutual. To us, they’re weirdos.
This is my industry, so I write this with lived experience. I write this seeing my friends and colleagues in financial distress. People with long, successful careers, with families and mortgages, who are wondering what their future looks like. Acclaimed musicians who once worked five jobs a week that now are lucky to have one a month.
Nationally respected comedians who spent most of their time at sea working cruise boats now have to deliver packages to scrape by. Dancers, who have to train and stay in shape, but have no major production to work towards. Festivals who program and create amazing events have to close at a moment’s notice. All that work gone. Maybe not to return. Arts organisations are teetering on the brink of closure. The legacy of our vision, of our sweat and our tears – gone.
It’s killing our spirit. We’ve seen our industry slammed into the wall. We don’t feel supported by our government. And guess what, in a bushfire, in a crisis, to raise money for social inequities or injustices, we are there for our community. We are always there. You don’t see the mining industry contributing their skills to raise millions – but you will see musicians. And comedians. And artists. Yet who is there to help us when we are in crisis?
My friend has spent six months painting an exhibition that hangs in Sydney this week. He can’t go. No one can go. Our work is on the national and international stage, so when COVID-19 hits, it means every closure and lockdown, every border closure impacts us, both locally and at a state and international level.
Since the lockdown in Greater Sydney, a snap Qld border closure, and restrictions that came in on 26 June, I have lost around $16k in work. I’ve lost a week of touring, playing eight gigs in Sydney, a sold out show in Wollongong, a festival show in Longreach, a highly paid corporate gig in Brisbane, a couple of local shows and a workshop I run. That was my income for the next six weeks. It was my income to pay myself, but also for my graphic artist, printing, advertising, for airfares, and accommodation, and for people I employ at my events. For us, like any business, generating income incurs cost. We have to pay our costs, but we have no product. The product is us. It’s not a pair of shoes or a macramé hanging chair that can be sold online.
For those of us in the arts, it’s not just work now that cancels or postpones. It’s work ahead. Promoters and event organisers are bleeding too. They lose confidence and so they cancel. I’ve had numerous big paying gigs in the weeks ahead collapse. I’ve gone through two bottles of liquid paper blotting out my income.
Yes, we in the arts are resilient. We are used to innovating. We are used to living with nothing. That’s how we got to where we are. We know how to struggle. But struggling in your 40s and 50s and 60s is pretty different to struggling when you were starting out. By the time you get to your 40s, mist people have kids, and lives to support: Managers, publicists.l, sound engineers. Arts support and employ large networkst of people.
The arts and entertainment sector contributes $111.7 billion per year in GDP. That’s over 6 per cent. For every million dollars we turn over, we produce nine jobs. For the same amount the construction industry only produces one job.
So why has our government forsaken us? Many of my colleagues didn’t qualify for JobKeeper. We don’t fit into the business or contractor frameworks that suit their applications. When you consider our GDP, that they’re happy to take our tax, and that there are over 12,000 businesses operating as Creative Artists, Musicians, Writers and Performers, it’s downright insulting.
Sure, the federal government did supply some assistance – as grants. Where other businesses might be able to apply for a grant, and if they meet compliance they would receive the $, we were made to come up with ideas under patronising programs like ‘Adapt’ and to compete with each other for assistance. Some got money, others didn’t.
Here’s another grant: ‘Suck it Up’. Turns out we all qualified for that one but didn’t get a cent for our efforts.
We have committed our lives to excellence in performance and creative product. It’s what we do.
Being supported by our government as a severely impacted industry would recognise the important role we play in society. This is not a hobby. This is our profession. And life is better for our efforts.
We need support. We need to be recognised. We need to work.
Otherwise there will be no arts.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
