We are all in this together: update in response to Coronavirus (COVID-19)
(Last updated on 5 June 2020)
To ensure the safety of our community at Toynbee Studios and any people we are in close and regular contact with, our building closed on Friday 20 March.
This is a very difficult time and we are mindful of the challenges we are all facing, particularly artists and freelance arts workers who are facing unprecedented precarity.
Even if we are working remotely, we remain committed to supporting artists, through offering digital support and advice, as well as by honouring existing contracts with freelancers and artists. We are thinking and planning and talking to our team and to artists about how we get through this collectively, creatively. If you’d like to talk, email roise@artsadmin.co.uk.
Studio hires
We aim to support artists creating work in our building as long as it is safe to do so.
We have contacted people who had hired our studios during our closure. Please get in touch with alexbrown@artsadmin.co.uk if you have any questions. We will keep all hirers updated on our building closure.
Our offices at Toynbee Studios
All of our employees are working from home. Please email admin@artsadmin.co.uk if you have any questions about this.
Arts Bar and Café
The café is now closed.
Support for artists
We are in dialogue with Arts Council England about how they can best support artists and freelance arts professionals during this challenging time.
Read about Arts Council England’s Covid-19 support alongside other advice and guidance relating
We will update our social media with any further announcements on this and we’re updating our weekly e-digest newsletter with funding, commissions, opportunities and resources for artists.
Artsadmin Artists Advisories
Our Artist Support Producers, Reena and Michael, and other staff can offer advisory sessions for artists digitally (via Skype, Whereby, phone or another platform) or over the phone. Please book these sessions online via the usual enquiry form.
RADAR workshops for artists
Workshops, such as those on budgeting and Arts Council England Project Grants, are be delivered digitally.
Events at Toynbee Studios
All public events here have been postponed until September but some of our events are happening digitally instead. Take a look at what’s on.
Touring and produced artist projects
Some of the projects we are touring and producing have been cancelled or postponed. Our producers are talking to the artists they work with to keep on top of the situation with projects on tour or in development. We will support artists in these conversations in order to mitigate the impact of these cancellations or postponements on their incomes.
Unlimited
We co-deliver Unlimited, a disability arts commissioning programme, with Shape Arts and they have published this useful information:
- Supporting staff with autoimmune conditions
- Contingencies for Covid-19, including supporting disabled artists and arts freelancers through commissioning blogs and micro-commissions for those who are self-isolating.
How you can support the arts at this time
More generally, we are inviting ideas about how to support artists and the arts, financially if you are able to and in other ways. Here are some actions we have come across (some adapted from The National Campaign for the Arts Ireland) and please email katie@artsadmin.co.uk if you have any others:
- If an artist’s/arts event is cancelled, consider not asking for a refund. Or you could donate the amount that your ticket cost, if you can afford to.
- Retweet, share, post about or comment on your favourite artists and their work. Help them to raise their online profile.
- Buy artists’ books, prints, records and other merchandise (from independent shops if possible).
- Listen to music by less-well-known people to boost their streaming figures.
- If you have friends who are artists or arts freelancers, check in on them, see how they’re doing and if you can help.
- When everything reopens, get out there and enjoy the arts – go to shows, exhibitions, gigs and other events; talk about their work to your friends; invite people to come with you to arts events.
- Submit any opportunities or useful resources via Artsadmin’s weekly e-digest newsletter.
The safety of our community, both at Toynbee Studios and the arts community we collaborate with around the UK and world, are of paramount importance to us.
Take care of yourselves.