HEADING FOR CATASTROPHE?
A‘CULTURAL catastrophe’ is looming in the UK, with more than 400,000 jobs at risk, industry leaders have warned.
Cultural institutions such as music venues, theatres, museums and galleries have yet to find out if they will be able to reopen on the Government’s provisional date of July 4.
Reduced capacities to comply with distancing rules and dinted consumer confidence are expected to compound the loss of income during lockdown.
And the impact could be even more acute in the north, Manchester arts centre HOME’s CEO Dave Moutrey fears.
“Surviving is not going to be without pain for HOME, like many other organisations in Greater Manchester,” he said.
“For some organisations that will be far more acute than others. Because we have a mix of art forms - cinema being one of them - it means we might be able to get there quicker, but for others it’s much more difficult.
“It is particularly acute in the north, which we know has been hit hard after 10 years of austerity. In the north west, the pandemic was also particularly acute.
“If you look at levels of poverty in the north west, you’ve not only got the impact of no income during the Covid crisis, there’s also the issue of what’s going to happen afterwards. Will people have the money to go out if they haven’t had a job?
“Local authorities in the north have been badly hit by austerity and those organisations that are supported by local authorities aren’t going to have it easy.
“We know Manchester [council] is making a strong commitment to it, but they can’t give money they haven’t got.”
Mr Moutrey has joined industrywide calls for more support for the sector, including the extension of the furlough scheme and the selfemployed income support scheme.
Helping them to survive is essential to the health of high streets and local economies, he says.
“Our audiences are massively loyal and are really keen for us to open again - 70 per cent of our surveyed attendees said they can’t wait to get back, and we had lots of donations from customers to support us,” he said.
“We have a civic duty to stick around and support our audiences and community and be there - but it’s going to be hard without Government support.
“If you look at what’s happening in town centres with retail closures, if cultural organisations aren’t going to be there, what will?
“Oldham Coliseum is at the heart of its community, so is the Octagon in Bolton, The Lowry in Salford. Museums and galleries are all really important to our cultural and community life.”
Speaking at a Downing Street press conference earlier this week, Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said he recognised the enormous challenges the performing arts sector is facing and was looking into further support.
He said he would be convening with industry experts to develop a road map for reopening venues and resuming performances.
“I know how essential our theatres, music venues and performing arts are to our wider cultural ecosystem,” he said.
“Culture is our calling card, it’s respected around the world.”
Mr Dowden said while cinemas may be able to reopen with reduced capacities it may be ‘some time’ before theatres are able to perform extensively again, noting that their ‘wafer thin’ profit margins means they need audiences ‘packed in.’
He said: “It’s going to be exceptionally difficult for theatres to open consistent with social distancing, that’s why I continue to have conversations with
Government to see what we can do to support them during this challenging time.”
A report released earlier this week warned that the UK’s creative industries will be hit twice as hard as the wider economy in 2020.
The sector stands to lose £74bn in revenue in 2020 according to research by Oxford Economics, which assessed the impact of the pandemic across music, film, TV, theatre, museums, galleries, publishing and architecture.
The Creative Industries Federation has warned the cultural sector is “on the brink of devastation”.
Chief executive Caroline Norbury said: “These are the industries of the future - highly innovative, resistant to automation and integral to our cultural identity.
We’re about to need them more than ever.
“Our creative industries have been one of the UK’s biggest success stories, but what today’s report makes clear is that, without additional government support, we are heading for a cultural catastrophe.
“If nothing is done, thousands of world-leading creative businesses are set to close their doors, hundreds of thousands of jobs will be lost and billions will be lost to our economy. The repercussions would have a devastating and irreversible effect on our country.”
The Federation said the industry was in rude health before the pandemic, employing more than two million people and contributing £111.7bn to the economy.