November 19, 2021

INDEPENDENT ARTIST, COVID-19 SURVEY RESPONSE (Aotearoa New Zealand)

By Johanna Cosgrove
19 November 2021

The last eighteen months have been hard on everyone, but it has been particularly challenging for artists who make a living from their creative practice in Aotearoa.

There has been some great advocacy going on behind the scenes for the arts community but it is being primarily led by organisations. What’s missing from their advocacy is the voice of the independent practitioner.

Me, @miss_c4nton and @sneddydo three independent, gigging practitioners, not employed or directly protected by any orgs. We’ve been zooming and FaceTiming for the last 3 months (🥵) to try to do something/anything for the sector we fkn love.

We realised that what was lacking from the conversation was data on how the pandemic and resulting lockdowns have affected gigging artists and creative workers (contractors who are outside of an organisational structure)

We put together a survey and collected data from over five hundred independent artists: a huge feat for a guerilla effort in a level 4/3 lockdown.

The results provide a clear picture of a community in the midst of a deep financial and emotional crisis.

It also points to some clear actions that can be taken to alleviate this crisis and, even now, avert some of its worst outcomes.

Thank you so much to each and every person who filled this survey out. Your voices are crucial. 💕

The link to the results are HERE – the louder we are now the better our chance that @creativenz and other government agencies will listen.