When Will Arts in Aotearoa get the Green Light?

Arts

While a shift to the new red lighting setting is on the horizon for Tāmaki Makaurau, this will not offer any immediate relief for the city’s arts community. James Wenley has some suggestions on what we can do

In the same week Auckland Theatre Company and Basement Theatre confirmed they were closing for the rest of the year, I attended a one night-only performance of Back to Square One? at the Tahi Festival of Solo Performance at Wellington’s BATS Theatre.

Back to Square One? is a Covid-19 show, inspired by writer/performer Anders Falstie-Jensen’s conversations with his 95-year-old grandmother Inga during the early stages of the pandemic.

Anders was scheduled to tour from Tāmaki Makaurau for the festival, but Delta decided otherwise. In his place was Salesi Le’ota, who made a heroic effort to learn the show over a handful of Zoom calls. Anders’ script was plastered on BATS’ walls, a meaningful pause away should Salesi need to find his place.

Anders told me he “saw this pandemic as an opportunity to rethink who we make theatre for, where and why”. The idea “was to make something that could be learnt and staged quickly, and performed indoors or outdoors without me being there”.

The show exemplifies the drive from our artistic community to keep going, to find ways to connect with and awhi audiences, to share stories and collective joy.

But keeping going is hard going in the pandemic. The path forward for festivals, music, theatre, dance, comedy, literary and other events still looks very uncertain.

Delta’s impact

While a shift to the new red lighting setting is on the horizon for Tāmaki Makaurau, this will not offer any immediate relief for Auckland’s arts community. Even though vaccine passports will enable small gatherings of up to 100 under the new red light setting, it takes time to get arts events together and few will be in a position to reopen before Christmas.

That means live arts events will have been on ice in our biggest city for a quarter of 2021. That’s a huge number of cancellations, and behind each is a team of arts practitioners hurting financially, mentally, and emotionally.

The Delta outbreak has had knock-on effects across the motu – the Whangārei Fringe and Tauranga Arts festivals were cancelled, and Nelson Arts Festival canned most of its programme.

And though Level 2 restrictions have impacted audience numbers, I’m grateful to have been able to go to live performances in Wellington over the past two months. My heart aches for friends and artists who have been in lockdown in the north.

Funding needs

Forty-three days after Aotearoa entered Level 4, Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Carmel Sepuloni announced $37.5m Delta relief funding for the arts and culture sector.

That’s big in an arts context, but Manatū Taonga—Ministry for Culture and Heritage figures put the funding (taken from an existing Covid arts budget) in perspective: the $37.5m is to make up for an estimated $466m loss during the first month of Delta restrictions.

During last year’s lockdown, Creative New Zealand (CNZ) offered arts freelancers top-ups to the wage subsidy, but similar support didn’t come this year. Instead, CNZ is using an extra $5m from the ministry’s Delta relief funding to boost existing programmes.

At 9am on November 1, charity MusicHelps announced the Delta Hardship Grant, offering $1000 grants to music industry workers affected by Covid-19 restrictions and cancellations. By 3.40pm that day, applications were temporarily suspended due to high demand.

A similar scheme for all arts workers impacted by Delta would help direct relief to those most in need.

Invest in people now – arts project will follow later.

There is a much bigger story here about the politics of arts funding. Recent investment in CNZ is tiny compared with the big pots of money Manatū Taonga is handing out. The appearance is of a ministry making a power grab by positioning itself as the bigwig of arts funding, and sidelining CNZ and the ministry’s other funding bodies.

Part of the problem is the lack of a larger plan, heightened by Manatū Taonga’s paucity of engagement with our grassroots arts communities. Te Taumata Toi-a-Iwi, Auckland’s arts regional trust, is pushing for a national arts strategy to help fix the broken system.

Getting the green light

Under the Government’s forthcoming traffic light system, there are no limits on numbers at events in the green (limited community transmission) and orange (increasing community transmission) settings if vaccine passports are used.

The problem for live arts is that even with world-leading vaccination numbers, it’s projected we’ll face a Covid caseload that will strain our health system and put Māori at particular risk. Te Pūnaha Matatini modeller Shaun Hendy cautions we may spend half to three quarters of 2022 on the tighter red restrictions.

Minister for Small Business Stuart Nash announced a Government-backed insurance scheme for events catering to 5000+ people that are cancelled due to Covid-19 restrictions.

A similar scheme for smaller events would make all the difference – another cancelled event can make or break practitioners’ livelihoods. Many are already facing decisions about whether to stay and tough it out, or leave the industry.

The majority of New Zealanders recognise the value of the arts. As Colmar Brunton’s 2020 arts survey found, the arts “are making a powerful contribution to New Zealanders’ well-being, and are helping us get through Covid-19”.

But what would it mean if the sector found itself back at square one? Square one means low wages, a median income of $15,000 for creative work, and a third of creative workers lacking a financial safety net. Square one means well-being challenges, burn out, and artists leaving the sector.

How do we avoid it?

Creative New Zealand and Manatū Taonga could prioritise funding for vulnerable arts practitioners during the pandemic.

Manatū Taonga could empower CNZ and other funders by handing over more of the ministry’s funding.

The Government could continue to make investments in the sector – guided by a national strategy – and develop a basic guaranteed income for artists.

Arts organisations could fully embrace collaboration by sharing resources, space, and people (giving freelance artists centre stage). They could also commission and subsidise work for a red light setting.

Through it all, artists will remain nimble. Back to Square One? is playing next at Ōtautahi Tiny Performance Festival at the end of November. Anders may still not be able to be there, but Salesi will.

Nurture ngā tangata, ngā toi will follow.