Many musicians, artists of all sorts, writers, actors are feeling the pinch at the moment. Performing work finished for many of us weeks before total lockdown in the UK began and there is little sign of it picking up in a way that means any of us can earn a living from performing. When it does pick up, the nature of it will undoubtedly be changed in the short term and probably impact long-term Arts policies and employment opportunities for Artists and Musicians.

Musicians began to try to replace the performing they need to be involved in by posting online performances, sometimes as a means to get choirs, instrumental ensembles and community music groups working towards a goal and others simply taking many of the parts by themselves just as a personal creative outlet. Mostly, the process involved in these performances are the fundamental reason for their being. The product is not always artistically satisfying but serves as a monument to the continuing love and commitment that we share for our music-making.

Unfortunately online performances, even of the highest quality, including those from the Royal Opera House, of opera and ballet, the National Theatre and Professional Music Theatre shows are not earning money. The shows are being aired – from our front room we are able to view quality shows from corners of the earth without cost. I’m sure we are all grateful that in these bleak times, lacking the ability to get our ‘art fix’ in the flesh, that we can log on to stream these events instead. Sadly though, as every artist expected to work without pay knows, exposure does not pay bills. At some point we have to face the emergency we are rapidly moving towards at an alarming rate. The Arts cannot survive on fresh air alone.

So the issue is not just for those who are performing is it? We are seeing a very real symptom of the problem in the form of collapsing Music Services, educational establishments like the York Minster Song School, who provide choristers for York Cathedral closing down through financial hardship. As parents tighten their belts with possible redundancies in the offing, music lessons are shelved. Online lessons rightly or wrongly viewed as perhaps less effective than face-to-face options. Additional choirs and orchestral groups being unable to work together in real time because of the time latency issue. Teachers of instruments which are large and usually accessed by pupils in school and learners do not have at home have been unable to move lessons online.

For those employed, furloughing is a short-term pay protection, for those who were lucky enough to qualify for the Government Self Employed payout, again these are short-term fixes for a problem which is not going away until musicians and music teachers are able to work properly again. If you had an income from both employed and self-employed work, your income will most certainly have shrunk but despite the tax burden on self employed earnings, unless the earnings are over 50% of your income, there is no help available to you. The vast majority of music teachers are on zero hours contracts. The day of reckoning will come when we see the returning student numbers in September. If you are employed, when your student numbers shrink, there is currently no safety-net and your performing work has dried up….these are the realities many of us are facing.

All schools are worried about the process of normal education. Sadly the delivery of ‘extras’ like music lessons are understandably perhaps not a priority for all establishments, especially against a backdrop where there is simply not enough space even for 3 year groups with depleted numbers in primary schools. Appointments and work for musicians and music teachers hang in the balance as we wait with baited breath for the latest positive spin on the risk-factors involved in playing musical instruments and singing, not just for professionals, but also for amateurs and children. The uncertainty of it all is not only mentally exhausting but scary – livelihoods and vocations are threatened. Many of us will not survive and will have no option but to do something else. When that happens the wealth of our Arts culture with be further impaired as the need to put food on the table will overtake the ability to go back to our beloved vocational jobs – this will impact on society in ways we have no way to measure.

Arts at Universities and Conservatoires are working out what they can offer their students on perfomers’ courses. We have yet to see whether University student numbers will be impacted and whether this will also be an on-going issue for the desire for students to spend their university loans on courses for which there is currently no employment…

The big names of Simon Rattle and Mark Elder have begun to wake people up to the desperate state of the Arts but many people will be asking themselves why they should be worrying about the Arts, given they are a luxury, aren’t they?

One thing I know: this whole pandemic situation has shown is that people NEED the Arts more than ever. Whether it’s Netflix, the written word, streaming of arts programmes, crafting, music, learning a new instrument or relying on your individual music lesson as an emotional crutch to get you through the week, the Arts are necessary. The NHS looks after our physical health. The network of Arts helps looks after our mental well-being and a world where the Arts are not valued will be a bleak and unhappy place to survive when the dust settles.