Too much perspective
The week in Creative Money 13 November, 2020
Financial guidance for creative professionals
Creative Money aims to have an open conversation about finances in the creative industries.
It was founded in July, 2020 in an attempt to address a frustrating lack of sound financial guidance for creative workers and is written by me, Matt Parker, a music journalist and lecturer.
It's been two weeks since my last email and it's fair to say 'events have happened'.
The US got a new president, the world has hopefully got a vaccine and even Downing Street's resident short-sighted shitposter Dominic Cummings is packing his bags. It's like some deity finally picked up the collective liberal wishlist and started clicking their fingers from the great beyond. My money is on Bowie.
Personally, I needed some good news. All is by no means well in the creative world at this point. We're in a second national lockdown in the UK, performance in front of a crowd is still a distant concept and even those of us fortunate enough to be able to work from home have seen work dry up or opportunities disappear.
I have been speaking to a fair few musicians for my freelance work lately, among them Declan McKenna, Bright Eyes and Julien Baker (no, YOU seek validation through name-dropping...) At one point or another, I find myself asking them all the same thing: "How has the way you think about being a musician changed this year?"
I have long used my interviews as a sort of semi-profitable therapy and this is no exception, but I do think talking the situation through with other people really helps. Conor Oberst, in an interview for Guitar World, told me that he has barely looked at a guitar; Julien Baker discussed how the perspective had helped her let go of some of her obsessive tendencies and Declan McKenna said some inspiring things about how we use creativity to translate the most difficult aspects of life. It makes you realise how different it is for everyone.
We've all had to change the way we think about what we do this year, often several times over. Going into the second lockdown brings up all the fear, confusion and frustration from the first time around and yet more changes in terms of what support is available to struggling creative workers.
With this in mind, I have (again) updated one of the first posts I made on the site, detailing Coronavirus financial help for UK creative workers. I imagine we'll see more support announced when the longer term picture becomes clear, but for now there are still options out there and some funds are even allowing people to reapply.
In the meantime, I try to remind myself that this lockdown is different to the last one, we know more now, there is the hint of light at the end of the tunnel and, even if things are unlikely to change overnight, we at least have a few reasons to be cheerful. So let's all hang in there.
Until next time.
Matt
Creative Money
On the site this week:
Coronavirus financial help for UK creative workers
Updated for November 2020 and the second UK lockdown
How I Make It Work: Lily Canter (freelance journalist)
From monetising hobbies, to podcasting and pensions
What do you need to know this week?
Government urged to do more to help performers and other arts freelancers (BBC)
Enlightening/depressing thread about how Brexit may affect touring and working in the EU (Twitter)
FREE online session on using BandCamp on 25 November, 2020 - requires pre-booking (FAC)
Your guide to giving evidence to the Music Streaming Inquiry (Ivors Academy)
Grants and funding opportunities
Theatre Artists' Fund
Offers emergency grants of £1,000 to theatre workers and freelancers. It is one of the biggest funds around in theatre in this respect, having raised over £3.9 million thus far thanks to donations from Netflix, the Arts Council and Backstage Trust. You can also currently re-apply if you've previously received support. Deadline: 20 November, 2020
Hope Mill Theatre Through The Mill Playwrighting Prize
Opportunity for writers to have their work fully produced by and at Hope Mill Theatre in Manchester. Winner will receive a monetary prize of £5,000 plus one-to-one mentoring with award winning writer Jonathan Harvey (Beautiful Thing, Hushabye Mountain). Deadline: 27 November, 2020.
NEW: Help Musicians Hardship Fund
The third phase of one of the major support funds for musicians is now open and will support successful applicants with a monthly top-up until March 2021. Deadline: ongoing
Royal Variety Charity Financial Assistance grants
The Royal Variety Charity is uniquely positioned to provide financial assistance to anyone who serves any facet of the Entertainment Industry. Deadline: ongoing
The White Pube Writers Grant funded by Creative Debuts
£500 given out monthly to a working class writer based in the UK. This grant has been set up to support writers of all ages who are early in their careers and would benefit from this no-strings attached financial support to help them in whatever they like. Deadline: ongoing
This week's to-do list:
Thinking about Christmas? Buy gifts from the The Theatre Support Fund's shop and you'll raise money for fellow creative workers in the process.