Independent Arts Practitioners Face Acute Financial And Emotional Hardship Due To Delta Lockdowns

The last eighteen months have been hard on everyone, but it has been particularly challenging for artists who make a living from their creative practice in Aotearoa.

There has been some great advocacy going on behind the scenes for the arts community but it is being primarily led by organisations. What's missing from their advocacy is the voice of the independent practitioner.

Johanna Cosgrove, Alice Canton and Sam Snedden are three independent, gigging practitioners, not employed or directly protected by an arts organisation.

They realised that what was lacking from the conversation was data on how the pandemic and resulting shutdowns have affected gigging artists and creative workers - contractors who are outside of an organisational structure.

They put together a survey and collected data from over five hundred independent artists: a huge feat for a guerilla effort in a level 4/3 lockdown.

The results provide a clear picture of a community in the midst of a deep financial and emotional crisis. It also points to some clear actions that can be taken to alleviate this crisis and, even now, avert some of its worst outcomes.

The results and insights are available now - please click here for the full report.

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