COVID fatigue hits arts players

The first months of 2022 felt like the start of the pandemic all over again for the arts sector, but with more fatigue and less financial support, according to Jenny Simpson.

Now, despite most restrictions having been lifted and some activities starting up, the sector is still reeling from the financial and wellbeing impacts of COVID-19.

Ms Simpson heads AWESOME Arts, which runs programs in schools and holds a festival in the September school holidays each year.

While the COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictions implemented to stop its spread brought constant change for the sector, AWESOME Arts worked hard to hit its targets.

The organisation was able to continue operating throughout this period, largely because of its 2020 and 2021 festivals.

However, due to uncertainty around border reopenings and changing COVID-19 restrictions, AWESOME Arts postponed its recent encore season, which was to feature artists from Melbourne who were unable to visit Western Australia for regular programming.

Its school programs have also been on hold. Although schools are again allowed to have incursions and artists-in-residence programs, Ms Simpson said she predicted schools would be unlikely to do so until things settled down.

Ms Simpson said initial funding provided by the state government and Lotterywest was helpful, as was the state government’s Getting the Show Back on the Road+, which offered reimbursement for ticketed events.

However, she said the sector was at a stage where COVID-19 relief had dried up and times were still tough.

“I guess you could say that we have long COVID because the support is still very much needed,” Ms Simpson told Business News.

In addition to the pandemic, small to medium organisations are just months away from submitting their multi-year funding applications, and renegotiating support from corporates and philanthropic foundations.

A recent report compiled by the Chamber of Arts and Culture of WA provided a timely insight into the state of the sector.

The report involved surveying 296 organisations, artists and arts workers from mid-February to early March 2022 to gauge the impact of the pandemic on business.

The survey found 61 per cent of respondents in the small to medium category would not be viable in a year’s time, even if programming returned to 100 per cent capacity and consumer sentiment improved.

If programming continued to be affected by cancellations due to COVID restrictions for the next six months, 75 per cent of all arts organisations in WA would not be viable, the survey found.

Small to medium-sized organisations reported to be more heavily affected by cancelled events than larger organisations.

Nealy half (46 per cent) of organisations with annual turnover between $500,000 and $1 million reported a financial loss, and 36 per cent of those with turnover between $1 million and $5 million.

The extent of the damage will not be known for some time, as organisations submit their 2022 financial results next year.

While Ms Simpson said AWESOME Arts would probably remain viable, given its cash reserves, there was uncertainty around cash flow.

Others are in more precarious situations. Nannup Music Club, the organisation behind the Nannup Music Festival, made the early decision to cancel its 2022 event, scheduled for early March.

In January, when the club made the announcement, there were not many COVID cases in WA, but the planned border reopening on February 5 was a factor in the decision.

“The lead up was getting as concerning as last year, and I realised the deeper we got the bigger the impact,” Nannup Music Festival director Phaedra Watts told Business News.

“To cancel early meant that we, along with our vital stakeholders, could cut their losses before they were too deep.”

Ms Watts said while it felt risky at the time, new measures to limit the spread of COVID-19 came in a week before the festival was due to be held.

The decision was not without consequences.

Ms Watts said morale and excitement fell away and attention turned to the financial implications of cancelling the event.

“How do we see a year of operational spends with no income? How do we be sure to see that we can produce a 2023 festival?” she said.

“The majority of our ticket holders rolled over, which is great, however, we can’t access these funds until 2023.

“So, it’s heads down, bums up operating as tightly as we can: seeking any funds or support that might be available and getting the excitement back to start creating another incredible event.”

Another regional arts organisation, Southern Forest Arts, made the decision not to run any events until July, and to start regular programming again in the spring.

“We just can’t deliver things with any sense of confidence,” Southern Forest Arts general manager and artistic director Fiona Sinclair said.

“We have tried to organise things; you go to all the effort of putting something on and then you have to cancel because a key person is in iso[lation] or there is just general fear, apprehension levels, and so it just adds stress,” she said.

Ms Sinclair said this decision had been good for her team’s mental health.

“Our team are faring well because we made hard decisions about not trying to program,” Ms Sinclair told Business News.

Kim Jameson was involved in the creation of the survey.

Chamber of Arts and Culture WA executive director Kim Jameson said survey responses to questions about mental health were the most surprising.

“Ninety-two per cent were concerned about the wellbeing of staff and volunteers, namely 59 per cent of artists said they had experienced mental health issues in the past couple of years. I didn’t expect it to be that significant,” she said.

Ms Jameson said the survey also highlighted the lack of staff in commercial roles such as finance and HR in small to medium organisations to deal with the extra workload and help employees struggling with mental health issues.

“When you have staff who are suffering from mental health issues that might affect their performance, how do you navigate that?” she asked.

“You need an HR person to help you navigate those tricky issues.”

AWESOME Arts’ Ms Simpson said the sector had undergone changes in senior personnel during the pandemic, which could possibly be related to the stresses of handling the pandemic.

Senior leadership has changed at The Blue Room Theatre, Barking Gecko Theatre Company, Black Swan State Theatre Company of WA, West Australian Symphony Orchestra, West Australian Ballet and the Chamber of Arts and Culture of WA over the past two years.

“We have had some really big shifts in senior personnel around arts organisations in the past 18 months,” Ms Simpson said.

“It’s not a negative, but it’s destabilising.”

The sector was also at risk of losing the sole traders and freelancers that made up a high proportion of the industry.

The survey found arts workers were at risk of losing 8,117 contracts over the next six months if conditions did not improve.

“We have either whole or partially lost a lot of our available workforce and we are finding that to be very much the case,” Ms Simpson said.

Support

The chamber’s report makes several recommendations to assist the sector survive this period.

Ms Jameson said priorities included creating a mental health and wellbeing framework, like that introduced by the sports sector recently, while a state cultural plan was also needed to help guide organisations.

A further recovery package of about $30 million to enable organisations to learn from the past two years would also be useful, she said.

“I think what that would do is enable organisations to reflect on what worked well for them in the past couple of years; look at what works well and really develop more plans for other crises,” Ms Jameson said.

She said support for individual artists, like the federal government’s JobKeeper, of about $5 million would be welcome to ensure the sector didn’t lose talent and to provide the breathing space to apply for funding.