Coronavirus resources & latest news

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Green Squirrel

[updated 2 December 2020]

    We are collecting evidence of work in culture, health and wellbeing during the pandemic. See the latest evidence here.

    Guidance for reopening and restarting work

    Guidance for reopening

    Second lockdown (Nov 2020)

    The Furlough Scheme has been extended: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/furlough-scheme-extended-and-further-economic-support-announced as has the SEISS scheme for eligible freelancers who have had their work affected: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/self-employment-income-support-scheme-grant-extension. 

    Guidance for reopening

    See also guidance for online work, below.

    Funding & government financial support

    General information: Heritage Alliance summary of the DCMS settlement in the government's spending review (end-Nov 2020) 

    Culture Recovery Funds have closed for applications and funders are now beginning to reopen their 'normal' project funding offers.

    Guidance for working online

    We developed new guidance on working online in collaboration with Arts Marketing Association, 64million Artists and Real Ideas earlier this year, for those of you working or running groups online. You might also want to check:

    Digital training

    Freelance support

    Weareunlimited have a contingency plan for supporting disabled artists who may be losing work, and general coronavirus resources for disabled artists. Susan Jones has produced an excellent 4-point plan for supporting freelancers, see below.

    If you run a business, venue or charity

    Analogue creative resources

    For some fantastic examples of offline and blended on- and offline practice see our report and case studies on work designed to reach people shielding at home. Here are some other examples:

    Digital/online creative resources

    Resources:

    General resources

    We continue to send our solidarity and support to frontline workers. Please see also our statement of support for #BlackLivesMatter.

    #BuildBackBetter: The Culture, Health & Wellbeing Alliance is a signatory with the #BuildBackBetter coalition: "a platform for everyone who wants us to come out of this crisis a stronger, fairer, greener country."

    Learning from experience, and taking a step back: You can find here a collection of responses and reflections from the LENS group and others with lived experience of the impacts of culture and creativity on their health and wellbeing. We have also brought together a number of reflective articles and blogs to help us think through this crisis and the changes it may bring.

    Evidence we're gathering: You can see a list of the evidence we are gathering of activity in culture, health and wellbeing in relation to covid here. You can hear Rosie Dow present some early results from our survey in this Re-imagining the Future webinar from 18 May 2020.