In this blog post I have started to gather information about government’s digital support for audiences to connect with cultural content during the pandemic and for artists to get their activity online.

I have collated information about recovery approaches and emergency funding in my post about government responses. Below is more info about some of the examples I have found so far of online support for public experiences of the arts. Please do send through any examples you come across and I will add!

Australia

ABC Fresh Start Fund: AU$5 million for the Australian production industry

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) launched a AU$5 million development fund entitled “ABC Fresh Start Fund” to support sustainability and growth in Australia’s production industry. The fund has the following streams:

1. Enhanced Development & Production Fund: kickstart existing productions impacted by COVID-19 after the lifting of restrictions and new stories in any genre about Australian culture and communities, particularly in new formats.

2. Innovation Fund: supports individual Australian creatives who may not have worked with the ABC previously.

3. Arts Digital Fund: supports Australian creatives and production companies with innovative ideas for new arts content, particularly documentary storytelling.

4. Children’s Content Fund: supports excellence in children’s content in scripted/factual productions and music commissioning.

5. Australian Music: supports independent Australian artists and musicians across all ABC music networks, including commissioning new works for ABC Classic and ABC Jazz, and music scholarships.

Screen Queensland

As part of its AU$3.3 million (US$2.1 million) COVID-19 support package, Screen Queensland will dedicate AU$50,000 to help support the online shift of the state’s film festivals. The V-Fest initiative will offer five grants of up to AU$10,000 each, to assist with costs related to running and delivering a virtual screen festival in the next 6 to 12 months. The focus is primarily for Queensland-based audiences with the possibility of each event expanding to reach a larger audience across Australia.

Screen Australia

Screen Australia has more than doubled the available funding through the Story Development: Premium Fund from AU$1.4 million to AU$3.4 million in 2019-20, focusing on projects in advanced stages of development so as to be ready to shoot once the lockdown eases.

Belgium

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Belgian cinema at home

The Federation of Wallonia-Brussels is supporting the virtual release of Belgian films on national streaming platforms. This initiative is supported by the Centre du Cinéma et de l'Audiovisuel of the Wallonia-Brussels and is called "Belgian cinema at home". A media campaign will promote the films thanks to a dedicated website and Instagram account @lecinemabelgealamaison. The website also lists other Belgian French-language films (feature films, shorts, documentaries) available, for free and for a fee, on the various platforms including Proximus, Voo, Auvio, Universciné.

Canada

#CanadaPerforms

In first ten days, streams generate 1.3 million views.

A joint venture between Canada’s National Arts Centre (NAC) and Facebook Canada: artists across the country can have their 45- to 60-minute performances livestreamed to audiences. Canadian performing artists (including musicians, comedians, dancers, singers, theatre artists and ensembles of less than 10 people) can apply.

Performers receive a CAN$1,000 (US$705) grant, with NAC staffers and industry leaders to select the fund recipients. The fund started with an initial grant from Facebook Canada of CAN$100,000 (US$70,522), but on March 21, Slaight Music announced a donation of CAN$100,000 (US$70,522). This was followed by a CAN$200,000 (US$141,000) boost from RBC Bank and another CAN$200,000 (US$141,000) from satellite radio provider SiriusXM.

“Canal Squat”

Platform uses cartoons and videos to communicate COVID-19 with young people.

Canal Squat is a new information feed designed specifically for young people and broadcast on Télé-Québec's Le Squat platform. Every day, articles published in daily newspapers are rewritten especially for Le Canal SQUAT. The press cartoonists are also called upon to contribute to a better understanding of the news for youth. Squat Canal will also offer daily news on other topics of interest to them and original video clips.

Leadership Emergency Arts Network

This is a grassroots pro bono response network to help Canadian professional, non-profit arts organisations deal with the COVID crisis. The network already has more than 100 advisors, including board members, Eds and consultants, providing support with strategic decision-making, crisis response, financial analysis, board direction, relationships mediation. HR management, systems change and leadership.

Cape Verde

100 Artists on Stage

The Ministry of Culture has launched “EnPalco100Artistas” (100 Artists on Stage) to support 100 artists whose performance will be disseminated online for free. Each artist will receive 10,000 escudos (US$100) from the government.

Chile

Nearly 500 artists will also be hired for a total of 7.2 million pesos to produce content to be transmitted on the Ministry's digital platforms.

Cuba

The Cuban Institute of Music (Instituto Cubano de la Música) promotes various musicians whose performance on social networks and on the radioto raise the morale and hope of those who are in quarantine or who work in hospitals. This initiative is the result of a collaboration between the Institute, the Ministry of Culture and the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television under the slogan #EstamosContigo (we are together) and #MusicosPorCuba (music for Cuba).

The Ministry of Culture (MINCULT), together with the Cuban Radio and Television Institute, will capture the musical performances at home or in cultural centres and broadcast them on Facebook and the Cuban Ministry of Culture's YouTube channel, Canal Clave and Radio Progreso.

Egypt

25 million visits to YouTube channel in 60 days

The Egyptian Ministry of Culture launched “Stay at Home: Culture is in Your Hands” initiative. All cultural sectors began broadcasting and uploading their content on the internet. The Supreme Council for Culture launched the "Read with Us" initiative. The initiative presents a chapter reading from a book or novel, a short story, or a poem, in a 10-minute recording made by the writer/ poet himself. The Supreme Council of Culture then uploads the daily readings on Facebook and YouTube.

England

*BBC Culture in Quarantine website screenshot*

The BBC Culture in Quarantine Fund will support 25 artists to produce works that ‘could be made at no other time’. Grants range from 3,000-8,000 per project.
The BBC has also launched the Culture in Quarantine initiative that will run across UK radio, TV and digital platforms which will include guides to shuttered exhibitions or permanent collections in museums and galleries; performances from musicians and comedians; new plays created especially for broadcast; the experience of book festivals with access to authors; and quarantine diaries from creative visionaries.

Indonesia

BudayaSaya YouTube channel

The channel has more than 32,000 subscribers

The Directorate-General for Culture has launched a digital campaign with the hashtags #asikdirumah (fun to be home), #bahagiadirumah (happy at home), #creativedisaatsulit (creative in difficult times), and #dirumahaja (just be at home). Indonesia’s campaign has prompted various artistic performances that are being live streamed or taped remotely from the homes of artists, and shown through the Directorate-General for Culture’s YouTube channel “BudayaSaya”.

Aside from the performances, cultural artists and artisans are also sharing their knowledge by providing online master classes/tutorials on dancing, painting, music, storytelling, and film production. The dates and times of the performances and knowledge-sharing sessions are being shared through Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms in cooperation with arts institutions. Moreover, the Directorate-General for Culture provides professional remuneration for the performances and online classes provided by the artists and artisans.

Poland

Culture on the Web

“Culture on the Web” is a program to aid the dissemination of creative activities or the presentation of their effects in electronic communication channels, primarily on the Internet. The programme's budget is PLN20 million (US$4.84million) and was funded on 31 March 2020 as part of the Anti-Crisis Shield for culture with a planned budget of PLN4 billion ($US 958.7 million).

Polish Film Institute Crisis Team

The Polish Film Institute has a 16-person crisis team to support the film industry during the crisis. They have engaged in a range of crisis measures including advanced and increased funding for domestic films, working on online systems to allow festivals to occur online.

The team estimates that the market for Polish films will be “cannibalised” by non-Polish productions, especially in autumn 2020, and in response the team plans to create a special schedule of premieres to address this.

Switzerland

Close Distance

«Close Distance» call for projects by arts agency Pro Helvetia. The aim is to encourage arts practitioners and cultural institutions to initiate new forms of collaboration and new forms of connection with audiences or to intensify existing ones – within Switzerland or in cooperation with international partners. Experimental formats of artistic collaboration and reflection, as well as international networking, partnerships and platforms are of special interest in this context. The aim is to support and stimulate the creation of new formats which can be maintained beyond the crisis and which demonstrate that physical mobility need no longer be a prerequisite for cultural production and reception. A selected project can be supported with a grant of up to CHF 50,000 ($US 51,355).

Ukraine

Media Change Ukraine

The National TV and Radio Broadcasting Council of Ukraine has established a 'TV content exchange’ project entitled ‘Media Change Ukraine.’ This is a content database which any TV company in the Ukraine can upload content to, stipulating licenses to the National Council for the period of the COVID quarantine.

Uruguay

Sala Zitarrosa & Montevideo Department of Culture program: “My Song, My Stage”

Montevideo Cultura

In Montevideo, the City’s Department of Culture has launched an “Art in Times of Quarantine” open call for projects of any art form which are related to the experience of COVID by the artists of Montevideo. In addition:

in partnership with the Sala Zitarrosa, they have launched the online program “My Song, My Stage” to support musicians to share performances and talk about the creation of a song online.

The Department is supporting videos generated for the #MyBookInHouse campaign to promote books and support the literary sector
The Department is also supporting a range of online platforms so people can enjoy various art forms at home via #DesdeCasa.
The Audience Development area is also inviting young people to participate in “Cultubers”