From the Globe and Mail an article about just how bad things are: When the music’s over: COVID-19 decimated the arts in Canada, and the worst may be yet to come.
The musicians who played these venues, the actors who can’t go on stage, the visual artists whose exhibitions were cancelled, are self-employed freelancers and independent contractors. Some jobs in their fields offer secure, steady incomes – the administrators, curators and even some technicians are staffers with large and small organizations – but being an actual creator often represents a Darwinian gamble. A tiny number will become stars; the rest will struggle to get by. That economic gap between the institutions and the actual artists, often a source of tension in the cultural community, is now widening. There’s an iceberg effect: The tip features brave arts groups offering online concerts, virtual gallery tours or remote learning. It’s individuals who are under water.
While many administrators will survive, it is the actual creative artists that are hardest hit and many will be forced to simply leave the profession. Even very established performing artists have seen nearly all of their income simply disappear. The bottom line is that a very large proportion of the most creative artists in the Canadian performing arts will simply be gone for good, working in some other field that will enable them to actually make a living.
No envoi for obvious reasons.
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