Nationally, financial losses to nonprofit arts and cultural organizations are an estimated $9.1 billion as of July 13, 2020. 96% of organizations have cancelled events since the onset of the pandemic—some as far out as 2021—resulting in a loss of 327 million admissions and $10.4 billion in event-related spending by arts audiences at local businesses (restaurants, lodging, retail). The total economic impact of these losses is $3.3 billion in lost government revenue and 561,000 jobs no longer being supported. (Source, with further details).
Of the total 4.9 million PPP loans reported by SBA, 173,243 of them were made to arts and creative economy businesses worth $13.7 billion, which preserved 1,124,138 jobs. $11.9 billion of these loans were awarded to for-profit arts businesses and gig workers (retaining 947,877 jobs), and $1.8 billion were awarded to nonprofit arts organizations (retaining 176,261 jobs). (Source: Americans for the Arts).
Senate Republican COVID-19 Relief Proposal
Senate Republicans are divided on many pieces of this relief bill, but are trying to unite with each other and with the White House for a unified front. There is substantial opposition to the Democratic-backed bill (HEROES Act), but those negotiations are very preliminary.
Check this article out, which states: “Senate Republicans delayed the release of their coronavirus relief package Thursday as they struggled to resolve policy disputes and iron out details of the trillion-dollar initiative. While Senate leaders had hoped to unveil their measure this week, lawmakers said last week that the series of bills they are drafting would require more time and won’t be released until Monday at the earliest. Learn more.
The RESTART Act
The RESTART Act, S. 3814/H.R. 7481, has had great momentum in the past month.
Introduced by Senators Young and Bennet in the Senate and Representatives Golden and Kelly in the House, RESTART is positioned not as a solution for unemployment, but as an augmentation of the PPP program. Unemployment programs are compatible with RESTART, as they are with PPP.
In comparison to PPP, this is where the strengths of RESTART outweigh some of its weaknesses. PPP was limiting for self-employed artists by being based off net income, and excluding important expenses such as health care premiums, rent, equipment costs, etc. RESTART mitigates a lot of those limitations by being based of gross receipts, and expressly including a broader array of forgivable expenses. On the whole, an artist could benefit more from RESTART than PPP. Learn more.
Join the Arts Action Fund
It's FREE and takes just a minute. Add your name and be counted so Congress know their are millions of arts and creative workers,businesses and citizens who insist that arts and creativity are critical to our country. Join here for updates and calls to action.
Extend PUA Campaign
All forms of live entertainment are cancelled well into 2021. It means millions who create these experiences are currently completely unemployed. Professionals want to go back to work, but, with the entire entertainment industry shut down, they are relying on the FPUC $600/wk to survive. They are performers, crew, management, venue staff, the list goes on and on for over 5 million jobs.
See how you can help advocate here.
Read more about the Extend PUA Campaign.
Beginning August 1, WolfBrown, in partnership with Ron Evans of Dramatic Strategies, will open up participation in the Audience Outlook Monitor study to a cohort of 20 individual cultural organizations on a first-come, first-served basis.
To be eligible, individual organizations must be able to deploy the survey protocol via email to their own ticket buyers or members, and explore results via guided access to WolfBrown’s online dashboard tool. Participants will connect with peer leaders from other cultural organizations to explore the implications of the results moving forward.
To participate, individual organizations must:
- Be a U.S. or Canadian organization not already involved in the study through an existing cohort or partnership.
- Have a minimum of 6,000 customer email addresses (i.e., send the survey invitation to a minimum of 2,000 people on each of three deployment dates)
- Agree to three survey deployments on a fixed schedule over the next 6 months.
- Agree to full transparency at the cohort level (i.e., all individual organizations participating in this cohort will see each other’s results)
The survey protocol for the Covid-19 Audience Outlook Monitor will be provided by WolfBrown, and cannot be customized, in order to allow for comparability across cohort members.
If you’re interested in having your organization participate in this study, please save a spot in the upcoming informational webinar happening on July 31, 2020 at 9am PST, and you’ll be invited to the first step of the process. Please register for the webinar, even if you can't make the event (we will provide the recording to you). Questions should be directed to Ron Evans at ron@askronevans.com.
Please note: individual organization slots are limited to 20, and will be allocated on a first come, first served basis, if requirements are met. The informational webinar will be held on July 31, 2020 at 9am PST. Register online.
Michigan Humanities Arts and Humanities Touring Grants for summer performances due August 27
Arts and Humanities Touring Grants are now open for performances that will take place between June 1 and August 15.
- Funds may be used to pay artists that provide virtual programming. Applications are considered in the order they are received, and the application window will remain open until all funds are committed.
- Browse the artist directory and apply for the grant, or you can learn more about the Arts and Humanities Touring Grant program on our website and view sample application questions.
- If you have any questions please feel free to email Director of Federal and State Grants, Jennifer Rupp, at jrupp@mihumanities.org.
- Fall 2020 Humanities Grant draft proposals are currently being accepted with a final application deadline of August 27.
- Visit the Humanities Grant website for additional information.
PPP Loan Forgiveness Update
SBA has recently released additional guidance: SBA Procedural Notice: Procedures for Lender Submission of Paycheck Protection Program Loan Forgiveness Decisions to SBA and SBA Forgiveness Loan Reviews (Released July 23, 2020)
The PPP Forgiveness Platform will go live and begin accepting Lender submissions on August 10, subject to extension if any new legislative amendments to the forgiveness process necessitate changes to the system.
PPP Arts Industry Data
Check out the news item here! The top-line item is that of the 4.9 million PPP loans, 173,243 of them were made to arts and creative economy businesses worth $13.7 billion, which preserved 1,124,138 jobs.
NAICS codes were used to determine this data.
Please note the following document was released earlier this week:
SBA Information Notice on Guidance Regarding Identification and Reporting of Suspicious Activity in the COVID-19 EIDL Loan Program (Released July 22, 2020)
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Concentrate
Concentrate Magazine tells the narrative of Washtenaw County’s narrative people and businesses, new development, cool places to live, and the best places to work and play. The website and weekly online magazine are published Wednesdays.
For the fastest updates and breaking news!
The Arts Alliance’s COVID-19 Support Page
- Resources– including advocacy, support and affiliation agencies
- Aid, assistance and grants for artists, creatives and organizations – COVID-19
Contact us anytime at info@a3arts.org or 734-213-2733.
The Arts Alliance is the arts + creative industry authority in Washtenaw County. A regional agency, its mission is to advocate for and support Creative Washtenaw and ensure that the greater Ann Arbor, Michigan, region remains a great place to create, live, work, learn, play and visit.
The intrinsic and aesthetic values of the arts and creativity are determining factors of success for the members of The Arts Alliance: Creative people from students to industry experts leading the sector locally, nationally and internationally. They are professionals and amateurs who have creative practices, own creative businesses, hold creative jobs in profit, nonprofit and government entities; and offer creative products, services and programs throughout the Washtenaw community.
The Arts Alliance serves Ann Arbor, Chelsea, Dexter, Manchester, Milan, Saline, Whitmore Lake and Ypsilanti plus the 21 townships in the county.
It is committed to, forever evolving and learning about diversity, equity and inclusion.This includes leaning in to listen and act on how the communities it serves define the intrinsic and aesthetic qualities of art and creativity be it by the cultural expert, the credentialed scholar, the journeyed or self-taught master and/or the astute consumer of the form.
The Arts Alliance is supported by its members, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs.
For more information, please go to a3arts.org or contact info@a3arts.org or 734-213-2733.
