If a concert or other performance I'm planning to see gets canceled, I am not particularly going to suffer. But the people who would be performing, most of whom are independent contractors, aren't going to get paid if they don't perform. One artist I follow mentioned that if X is canceled, there goes a very high percentage of their income for the year. Multiply this by the thousands of musicians, dancers, and actors out there, and you can see a catastrophe developing.
There are things you can do.
- Make donations to organizations you care about, in the amount of the tickets you would be buying and donations you would be making, even if you're not seeing the shows.
- Write letters urging these organizations to pay the artists anyway.
- Urge your friends to donate.
- Find funds that are raising money to support the performing artists who are going to take this kind of financial hit, and donate to them.
- Find other direct ways to support the artists you care about.
Here are the organized relief efforts that I know of:
- AGMA's fund
- The Actors Fund
- MusiCares Financial and Addiction Recovery Assistance
- Opera San José Artists and Musicians Relief Fund
- Musicians Foundation
- Merola Artists Emergency Fund, for recent Merola Fellows
- New Music Solidarity Fund, for new/creative/improvised music freelancers (accepting donations but has closed applications for now)
- Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grants (ENDS TODAY, May 31)
If you know of others, please let me know, with a comment, a tweet, a Twitter DM, etc.
Also: donate money to food banks. And demand a better social safety net, including universal health care, paid sick leave, improved cash payment supports, a rollback of cuts to SNAP, and decent housing for all.
7 comments:
Thank you for this, Lisa. I will probably lose close to 1/4 of my performing income for the season. I'll only know for sure when I see what the happens in May (could be more if this goes on even longer). I know there are many others who will suffer even more, though, so I'm working very hard at not whining and turning this into a "what can I get done around the house that I've been ignoring?" time.
... I should add (sorry!) ... I am fortunate, as I have the ability to deal with this loss (thank you, equity line of credit!). I worry for those that will suffer greatly.
I'm glad you'll be okay. I'm worried about everyone whose income is going to be hammered by this, from hotel and food service workers to musicians. So many people at risk because of the total lack of a social safety net.
Thanks! I'm grateful for our situation as well. There are far too many who are going to be hit hard, and it's just rotten. I still think shutting down was wise but I wish we had employers who had enough funds to pay at least some of what is lost.
... and as an aside, it was a shock to see what my comments were linked to: I had NO idea that blog still existed!
I'm confused - which comments and blog? :)
The comments I leave here are connected to an old blogspot account I had. No biggie ... just didn't even remember I had it!
Thanks for highlighting this. Our income is 99% performance-based as a traveling musician family, so our family of 11 took quite a hit. We haven't had a gig since early early March. Praying for all of you out there!
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