The New Lockdown

Reopening attitudes amongst artist-led organisations in England (July 2020)

In July 2020, as the UK Government published guidance to encourage arts and cultural organisations reopen, Artquest conducted a targeted survey of artist-led organisations to understand their plans to reopen. The survey opened on Monday 6 July and closed on Monday 27 July 2020.

We received 99 responses from across the UK, with almost all responses from England (36.4% from London). Other devolved UK nations continued with a stricter lockdown; with few responses from Scotland, Wales, and none from Northern Ireland, our research will cover only organisations in England.

Headlines:

• 10.9% of respondents reported reopening on 4 July 2020, the first day permissible, with 53.9% delaying.
• 35.9% of respondents could not reopen as no guidance is in place for studios, workshops, community events or other art programmes that are not gallery based.
• 2.3% of respondents do not expect to reopen at all
• 1.9% had already closed as a result of lockdown
• 12.6% did not know when they might reopen
• 57.1% of respondents who rely on commercial income – sales, hires, tickets etc – reopened on 4 July 2020, with only 6.7% of those in receipt of regular funding opening at the same time.
• 77.3% of respondents anticipate being open by July 2021, with 62.6% expecting to reopen by the end of September 2020

Reasons for delaying reopening included:

• It is not safe to reopen (19.4%)
• Belief that audiences would not return (14.6%)
• Lockdown impacted other areas of life, so reopening is not a priority (11.7%)
• Impossible to socially distance in the venue, unaffordable safety measures, reprogramming in light of COVID-19 is taking longer, vulnerable or shielding audiences, lack of funding, or the closure of the venue’s host building (all under 10%)

In addition, 23.1% of successful applicants to Arts Council England’s Emergency Response Fund (ERF) and 19% of those who furloughed staff on the Government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (JRS) reported reopening on 4 July 2020.

Reserves

24.6%

of respondents had no reserves or savings at June 2020

24.6% of respondents had already spent all their reserves or personal savings by the time of the survey, three months into lockdown.  Nationally, 18.5% of respondents had used their personal savings to cover costs, with 37% using organisational reserves.

Trust

A key element of the survey was to understand what sources of information are trusted when considering reopening. 24.7% of respondents mostly trust their own opinions, based on their own research, many more than the UK Government (6.7%) or UK scientific sources (11.7%). Opinions of peer organisations (18.2%) and international scientific sources (15.6%) are more trusted.