COVID-19 Pandemic Response & California’s Arts Ecosystem
A CAA Letter to Gov. Newsom & Legislative Leaders
March 23, 2020
Dear Governor & Legislative Leaders,
On behalf of California’s artists and arts organizations please accept our sincere thanks for your hard work responding to the immediate public health and safety needs of Californians during the COVID-19 pandemic. The public health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has affected so many lives and businesses, and the already financially vulnerable community of non-profit arts and culture organizations, as well as individual artists, have been severely impacted.
We are writing today to urge you to consider California’s artists, arts and entertainment workers, and non-profit arts and culture organizations as you respond to the COVID-19 pandemic in various ways. We have identified the areas below that might be of interest as you all continue your efforts to respond to both the public health and economic consequences of COVID-19.
How Artists Can Help During This Time of Need There are tens of thousands of artists and arts organizations across California that can be tapped to help California through these hard times. Access to arts is proven to be a model for successful outcomes for public health programs. Arts programming can be delivered online to students, seniors, and others through virtual learning strategies, and we believe that this would be especially useful as Californians are being ordered to shelter in place.
As California comes out of the COVID-19 emergency and restrictions are eased artists can also be deployed in hospitals, day care centers, senior centers and more to uplift, inspire and provide mental wellness for millions of Californians. The arts benefit patients, their caregivers, and the systems that provide the care—saving money, reducing pain medication needs, the length of hospital stays, decreasing depression, increasing memory and cognitive function, and improving communication and behavioral skills. When the time is appropriate we’d respectfully suggest that California’s artists and arts organizations should be called-upon to help our state heal and move into the future.
Support the California Arts Council’s Grantee Flexibility The California Arts Council (CAC) is California’s state arts agency, and their grant funding provides communities across the state with access to otherwise unavailable arts education and programs. Many of the CAC’s grantees will not be able to meet the requirements of current grants and could face unfortunate consequences at the worst time possible. The CAC has been very responsive to concerns of this variety and has already implemented steps to evaluate grantee requests for flexibility in the delivery of services under their grant programs.
We respectfully urge you to support the CAC’s efforts to provide flexibility to grantees as artists and arts organizations comply with local, state, and federal guidance in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. There might be additional steps, such as eliminating matching fund requirements, allowing services to be provided in a virtual environment while public health guidance requires social separation, and making changes to upcoming grant cycles to better reflect the current environment.
Consider the Arts Sector During COVID-19 Response & Recovery We urge you to ensure that California’s individual artists, arts and entertainment workers, and the arts and culture non-profits are included in any COVID-19 relief packages. According to 2019 SMU Data Arts research, about one- third of workers in the creative industries are self-employed.
According to The Bureau of Economic Analysis tables of personal consumption expenditures, performing arts, sports and museums are one of the top five sectors experiencing the most direct and immediate collapse in demand of facing government-mandated shutdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In a survey released on March 16 by Americans for the Arts, of the 176 California based organizations reporting, they’ve experienced a total loss of revenue of over $5 million, an average of $28,000 per organization. If we estimate that there are over 11,000 arts organizations in California (Otis Report 2020), the total loss of revenue due to the COVID 19 pandemic could be as high as $317 million.
We understand as of March 22, 2020, California has received a major disaster declaration from President Trump and a request was made for Disaster Unemployment Assistance (DUA) benefits. As an estimated one-third of the creative sector are self-employed, we strongly support the distribution of DUA.
In Conclusion The 2020 Otis Report on the Creative Economy states that 2.68 million, or 15.4%, of all jobs in California are in the creative industries and generate $650.3 billion in annual output. The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis reports that in 2016, the arts and culture sector contributed $174.6 billion to California’s economy, representing 7% of the state’s GDP. According to a 2020 CalNonprofits study, arts non-profits represent 12.5% of total non-profits in California. The 5,588 arts organizations identified in the study represent a total revenue of nearly $5 billion. Without aid from the public and private sector, the valuable non-profits providing impactful services in hospitals, schools, and prisons for veterans and low- income communities across the State will be decimated.
For more information: Julie Baker, membership@californiaartsadvocates.org, 916.296.1838 or Jason Schmelzer, Jason@SYASLpartners.com, 916.446.4656
Sincerely,
Julie Baker, Executive Director
Victoria Hamilton, Board President
Anne Bown-Crawford – Director, California Arts Council
Councilmembers – California Arts Council Senator
Ben Allen – Chair, Joint Committee on the Arts
Assemblymember Kansen Chu – Vice Chair, Joint Committee on the Arts