“With planning windows of many months, a performance season was difficult to imagine until today,” said Thor Steingraber, executive director of the Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts in Northridge. “Today’s announcement, at a minimum, provides arts leaders an on ramp to planning and announcing future performances, with the caveat that circumstances on the ground may change.”
Read MoreThe €2bn total pandemic emergency aid for the arts is equivalent to Germany’s annual federal culture budget. Culture Minister Monika Grütters said in a statement that the new cash injection for the arts—delivered under a programme known as Neustart Kultur (New Start for Culture)—is aimed at “offering a beacon of hope and encouragement to a cultural scene that has suffered mortal wounds.”
Read MoreGetting a COVID-19 vaccination at the Mexican Heritage Plaza in San Jose has become a more pleasant experience. That’s largely due to a pilot program that provides live music, including Afro-Latin jazz, R&B and mariachi for people in line for their shot or waiting out the observation period after receiving the vaccine.
Read MoreThe artists receiving the grants are not required to do anything in return. But YBCA CEO Deborah Cullinan told KQED that they will ask the artists to complete occasional surveys about how the guaranteed income payments are affecting their lives. “You can’t demand things of people, but we do need data,” she told the station.
Read MoreQualifications for the program include being a resident of San Francisco and being an artist “whose artistic practice is rooted in a historically marginalized community,” which Cullinan noted does not exclude anyone from any cultural or racial group but is meant to encourage artists from underrepresented communities to apply.
Read MoreThe Music Center in downtown Los Angeles is expected to announce Thursday that it is the first performing arts organization in the country to receive a UL “healthy building” verification, representing high standards for air quality at four venues — Walt Disney Concert Hall, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Mark Taper Forum and Ahmanson Theatre.
Read MoreWithout a moment to spare, the United States Senate just voted overwhelmingly 92-to-7 to extend the PPP application deadline from March 31, 2021 to May 31, 2021. The House had already passed this legislation 415-to-3 earlier this month, so it now moves to the President’s desk for his signature and certain enactment.
Read MoreMany arts organizations said business as usual will not return for months — perhaps years. Institutions that have outdoor areas are intent on making use of that space, while groups that don’t are focused on securing an outdoor site. Large venues that would lose money operating at reduced capacity are instead mostly planning online shows for summer while hoping for a brighter, less distanced fall.
Read MoreThe application window has been extended to March 26th, 2021 at 5:00 pm. There is no revenue cap in this round. Beginning March 31, Round 4 notification of awards will be announced. To apply and learn more, please visit our CA Relief Grants webpage.
Collectively, with your voice and our lobbying, we advocated to the state for funding specifically for our sector and on Feb 23, SB 87 was signed into law approving $50 million in funding for nonprofit cultural institutions. It is critical the field knows about this funding opportunity and takes advantage of it.
Read MoreThe idea, says one of the boosters, Nina Ozlu Tunceli, chief counsel of government and public affairs and executive director of the Americans for the Arts Action Fund, is to see “more of a multi cross-lateral approach to get arts in every federal agency to be part of their planning and programming.”
Read MoreToday, the Small Business Administration announced that the long-awaited Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG) PORTAL will officially open on Thursday, April 8, 2021. For those interested, please register immediately for the SBA’s national webinar on SVOG that will take place on Tues., March 30, 2021 @ 2:30 – 4:00pm ET.
Read MoreThe return of Shakespeare to Central Park is among the most visible signs that theaters, orchestras and opera companies aim to return to the stage — outdoors.
Read MoreThe Arts Endowment is moving quickly to develop guidelines and application materials for the competitive funding process. The goal is to craft a process which factors in important issues such as equity and access and which will benefit as many nonprofit arts organizations as possible.
At this time, the agency anticipates releasing the guidelines by late April.
Read MoreAzoulay said the upcoming recovery would determine “who we will be in the years to come. Culture cannot be forgotten in national plans, because there will be no economic recovery without culture. UNESCO is mobilised and calls on all actors to embrace these efforts collectively.”
Read MoreThe cause was Covid-19, his sister Angela Jones said. “My brother had opera singers’ lungs,” she wrote in a Facebook post, “and Covid destroyed them.”
Read MoreBefore the pandemic, New York City drew 67 million tourists a year to take in Broadway shows, Yankees games and Madison Square Garden concerts, generating $70 billion of economic activity. This month, Governor Andrew Cuomo took steps to reopen movie theaters, amusement parks, sports arenas and other venues at limited capacity but job growth and tourism remains stunted.
Read MoreNow that the Senate passed their version of the American Rescue Plan, it needs to go back to the U.S. House of Representatives for a vote on the identical bill. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) quickly announced that, “On Tuesday, the House will consider the Senate's amended version of the American Rescue Plan, so that we can send this bill to President Biden for his signature.” Target date for enactment is before March 14, 2021.
Read MoreUnder the bill’s provisions, 60% of the funds appropriated for the NEA and NEH should be dedicated to direct grants, and relevant administrative expenses, to support organizations that have been impacted by the pandemic. The remaining 40% are to be dedicated to state agencies and regional arts organizations.
Read MoreIn the thick of the current pandemic, artists have once again been employed to document a dark time; San Francisco’s COVID-19 Command Center (located at Moscone Center South) recently announced its artist-in-residency program.
Read MoreRETURN TO THE STAGE is a longitudinal study of performing arts workers in the United States, designed to understand COVID-19 related impacts and to begin documenting a broad future vision for the field.
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