Lockdown exit plan: the arts need clarity

At last, the long-awaited roadmap. It only took a year of the pandemic for the government to realise that industries need to plan ahead.

Nowhere do we love to plan as in the arts: funding plans, audience development plans, putting together productions and programmes years in the making… So trying to assemble a concert series or festival over the last year with no plan has been the stuff of nightmares for us arts administrators.

It goes without saying that we’re at the mercy of a pandemic that doesn’t care for plans or deadlines. But we’re also at the mercy of a government that has, largely, not bothered to present us with a plan until now.

And a funny plan it is: the opening up of society seems to me a strange combination of painfully slow, cautious moves, together with unbridled optimism. Beer gardens and outdoor sports can take place from 29 March, but no open-air theatre before 17 May. And then a total rollback of all legal limits, with full capacity stadiums on 21 June. We’re even offering to host the Euros!

It’s no real surprise to see that once again the arts are low down the list of our soon-to-be freedoms. Yet again I wonder: is a shop, in which people wander around, pick up and handle goods, any safer than a socially-distanced concert hall? Are gyms really safer than cinemas? (The cinema was a place for voluntary social-distancing before any of us had even heard of coronavirus.) It’s in the very DNA of the arts, an industry of planners, to make sure venues are welcoming and safe for audiences. In the less-restricted summer months of 2020, I felt safer in the theatres and galleries than I did in the pubs and restaurants.

And the idea that on 21 June we can suddenly start packing out theatres and concert halls again seems a fool’s game. Whilst I absolutely believe that audiences are bursting to see live art again, they’re still going to need some easing in, as they adjust to simply being around people once again. Full capacities by later in the autumn would seem to be more manageable, and in the meantime this means extending support and funding opportunities for the sector. I’ll be awaiting next week’s budget with interest.

Lateral flow tests for audiences also raises big question marks. Funnelling thousands of people into a venue is challenging enough without waiting for test results that currently take up to 30 minutes. Unless the technology was to drastically improve, it simply isn’t practical, and that’s before the ethical issues and questions of liability.

As we slowly accelerate towards the light at the end of the tunnel, it’s worth taking a moment just to think about how we approach this grand reopening. In the arts particularly, there has been much talk of ‘building back better’, with promises of a renewed focus on arts education, fostering local audiences, and supporting home-grown talent. It will be interesting to see, as venues and festivals jostle for artists, audiences and funding, how much of this is heeded over the coming months and years.