“I am not going to stand by and see our world-leading position in arts and culture destroyed,” he said in an interview with the Evening Standard newspaper on June 8. Dowden has repeatedly promised that a rescue package is coming. But the committee had not been discussing financial support she said that was not its remit. What institutions need now is money to prevent “catastrophic” layoffs, said Tamara Rojo, the artistic director of the English National Ballet and a member of the Cultural Renewal Task Force, in a telephone interview. “I’ve been surveyed to death,” she added. at setting up a committee, but what we need is action,” Cindy Sughrue, the director of the Charles Dickens Museum in London, said in a telephone interview. Rattle, said, “We really, really do not want to be left behind here, and have our world class industry fall by the wayside whilst European cultural institutions are being protected.” As a backup, they are calling for a huge government loan program to help them stage work in half-empty halls.Ī statement on June 19 from some of the most prominent British names in classical music, including Mr.
In June, Germany’s culture minister, Monika Grütters, announced a 1 billion euro fund to get the country’s culture sector back up and running, on top of generous support already provided by Germany’s regions.įor months, Britain’s cultural stars - from the conductor Simon Rattle to the organizers of the Glastonbury music festival - have been arguing and, at times, almost begging for action from the government.Īcting in a coordinated media campaign, actors and theaters have called for the government’s job retention program, in which it pays about 80 percent of furloughed workers’ wages, to be extended until venues can reopen without social distancing. In May, President Emmanuel Macron of France announced that all cultural workers who lost their jobs or couldn’t find work would be covered by a national unemployment plan until August 2021. But, so far, the government here has yet to announce a specific rescue package for the arts. But in Britain, where government funding is much lower and organizations rely on commercial income, most are unprepared for a future in which they can only admit a fraction of their usual audience.Īs in many European countries, workers in Britain’s culture sector are covered by economy-wide job protection programs.
In France, Germany, Italy or Belgium, where the arts are heavily subsidized by the state, performing companies and museums can survive with reduced ticket sales.
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