Here’s the latest Coronavirus (COVID-19) news… 

  

A reminder that we are circulating this news digest weekly on Tuesday. We are continuing to update the Resource Center on a regular basis. If you see interesting or helpful items or have a resource to share, please email me at jejenkins@artsusa.org. 

  

We invite you to share this news roundup with your networks and colleagues. 

  

AFTA NEWS/UPDATES 

• #artcreateshope. Tell us how the arts create hope for you! Share your story on social media of the arts creating hope in your life. Don't forget to tag @americans4arts and include #ArtsCreateHope in your posts. Need a little inspiration? Use our sample language and download images to get your social post started. 

• COVID-19’s Impact on The Arts Research Update: November 30, 2020 The coronavirus has had a devastating impact on America’s arts sector. Since the first U.S. case was reported on January 20, 2020 cancellations and closings are taking place at thousands of arts organizations across the country, and two-thirds of the nation’s artists are now unemployed. Americans for the Arts leads the three premier national studies tracking the human and financial impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on the arts. 
• How the Work of Americans for the Arts Is Addressing the Urgent Challenges of 2020: In 2020, Americans for the Arts continued its commitment to our vision and planned work, while also pivoting and taking on new, urgent work like so many of our 5,000 member organizations. Here are highlights of some key areas of this new and urgent work. 
• Calling on Artists & Creative Workers to Share Their COVID-19 Experience. Americans for the Arts and Artist Relief, with support from the Ford Foundation, have launched a second-round survey to understand what is happening to creative workers as we approach the end of the year, and what is needed for recovery. This survey collects the data and stories we need to advocate for artists and creative workers, so we can all come out stronger on the other side. Please share this link with your artist networks: http://www.americansforthearts.org/CovidArtistSurvey 
• To Rebuild and Reimagine the United States Post-Pandemic, We Must Put Creative Workers to Work,” a policy proposal developed with over 100 partners throughout the creative community to Put Creative Workers to Work in the national recovery—activating the creative economy and drawing upon the creative energies of the country’s 5.1 million creative workers to energize Americans, reimagine how communities can thrive, and improve the lives of all. Click here to view the full proposal, and follow the endorsement link at the top to submit your endorsement. You can sign on as either an individual or as an authorized representative for an organization. 
• OFFICE HOURS! Extended through the end of this year on Fridays (excluding holidays) from 11:00a to 12:00p EDT. Join Nina Ozlu Tunceli with the Americans for the Arts Action Fund to get answers to your most pressing questions about navigating the CARES Act relief programs. Check the link for any additional dates or occasional blackout dates.  

• CARES Act Table of Federal Arts Funding Opportunities – This helpful table breaks down the CARES Act so you can determine which funding opportunities apply to you, whether you represent a nonprofit organization, a governmental agency, a commercial arts company, a self-employed gig worker, or just a taxpayer. The table is regularly updated and links to helpful FAQs are listed on the last page. 
• Book Nina for your next local, state, or national webinar related to CARES Act funding for the arts and/or ArtsVote 2020 legislative and political activities. Free for members. 

• Please complete our revised COVID-19 survey for organizations. It still collects the critical up-to-date estimates that we need for our collective advocacy efforts. However, we’ve removed less relevant questions and added short sections on re-opening plans and the impact of the racial equity movement. You can keep up with the survey results by visiting the project dashboard as well as by downloading a handy 1-page summary of all our COVID-19 impact research. Link to Revised Survey: https://surveys.americansforthearts.org/s3/CoronavirusImpactSurvey 
• Sample plans for reopening: AFTA is collecting and sharing reopening plans. Some communities are closer than others to restarting businesses and allowing the public back into museums and cultural sites. As we receive examples of plans to reopen (please send them to services@artsusa.org), we will be sharing them on the resource center. 

  

FIELD PROGRAMMING 

(We will feature new offerings here – free to low-cost opportunities. Previous listings have been moved down to below the signature) 

  

• Dec. 2 – Feb. 24, various: Rootwork | Grounding Community Arts Education Beyond the Pandemic 

“Rootwork | Grounding Community Arts Education Beyond the Pandemic” is an online learning series about how to create programming informed by, and supportive of, the many, varied lived experiences of our communities in the unique context of this moment. Nationwide throughout the pandemic, community arts education organizations have been working iteratively to reconfigure programming for their new realities—not least of which includes addressing the severe social inequities that COVID-19 has so clearly revealed. In April, the National Guild held several series in initial response to the pandemic through which we, along with many arts education practitioners, co-learned about how organizations have adapted their programming most responsively when centering the communities whom have been historically marginalized by racist, colonialist, ableist, and ageist systems. These communities’ resilience offers us all tremendous leadership. 

  

FIELD NEWS 

• Post-Gazette: Most art lovers will return to live shows with COVID-19 vaccine, survey shows 
• The Washington Post: Transformed by crisis, arts criticism may never be the same. And that’s a good thing. 
• Go Press Times: City art scene hampered by pandemic, plans continue 

• Star Telegram: Arts nonprofit expands its mission to help people with food needs during pandemic 

MUSEUMS/GALLERIES 

• Our Community Now: Baltimore Museum of Art and the Walters Art Museum to Close Temporarily Due to COVID-19 

•  American Alliance of Museums: For Post-Pandemic Success, Get Creative with Distributed Museum Models 
• American alliance of Museums: Museums and Older Volunteers during COVID-19 

THEATRE & DANCE 

• Syracuse.com: Redhouse Arts Center presents ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ in radio play format 
• Edweek.org: Theater Educators Struggle to Keep Shows Going Amid COVID-19 

• Fox13: Utah performers use virtual events, other creative ways to showcase talents 
• Post-Gazette: How Pittsburgh’s arts groups are trying to connect performer and audience at a distance 
• ABC6: Philadelphia’s performing arts industry goes virtual to survive pandemic 

 

GENERAL NEWS 

• Fast Company: Moderna files for emergency use authorization from the FDA for its COVID-19 vaccine
• Nonprofit Quarterly: Business Survival in a Pandemic: The Importance of Local Ecosystems of Support 
• WNEP: Thanksgiving weekend wraps up with busiest air travel day since March 
• Fast Company: How to ask someone in public to put a mask on – while avoiding conflict (and droplets) 

 

EQUITY/MENTAL HEALTH 

• NBC News: Hard-hit by COVID-19, Latinos bear mental health burden 8 months into pandemic 
• Nonprofit Quarterly: Winter Resiliency: Fostering Mental Health in Times of Crisis 

 

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE 

• Fast Company: This pandemic bed-couch-desk-massager should be top of your winter wishlists 

 

Thanks for reading. We hope you find this news digest to be a helpful tool to navigate this very complex situation, and welcome feedback at services@artsusa.org. If you were forwarded this and want to sign up for the Local Arts Network listserv to receive it directly, click here. 

____________________ 

Jerelle Jenkins 

Local Arts Services Coordinator 

Americans for the Arts 

  

FIELD PROGRAMMING 

• Dec. 10, 1:00p ET: Public Art in the Age of COVID 

Join Lucas Cowan, Greenway Conservancy Director & Curator of Public Art, and members of the Greenway Public Art Advisory Group in an engaging exploration of the importance of public art during the COVID-19 pandemic. Learn more about the ways in which artists and arts administrators are working to adapt, collaborate, create, and plan ahead for public art in this unprecedented time.