On March 13, the Association of Teaching Artists (ATA), along with other national organizations such as Teaching Artists Guild, Creative Generation, National Guild for Community Arts Education, the NYC Arts in Education Roundtable, and Teaching Artists of the Mid-Atlantic, hosted a free webinar to address how the COVID-19 health crisis is affecting teaching artists.
The webinar is one of several actions by arts organizations over the past couple of weeks that seek to address the needs of artists through resource lists, grants, and ongoing efforts to ensure that artists, galleries, and museums, like many other businesses in the global economy, pull through to the other side of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Following the Webinar, a report was released detailing ways that philanthropic organizations could help address the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on artists. The study concluded that funders should consider shifting available funding to benefit the most financially vulnerable members of the arts education community, including teaching artists, independent contractors, freelance educators, and artists. Direct, one-time grants, with broad eligibility, and formation of a national U.S. teaching artists union or WPA-style intervention was also discussed.
Emphasis was also on addressing immediate needs of artists and organizations: Increased funding, adapting techniques for digital learning, and continuity planning.
The full report is available here.
Glasstire is committed to providing information to artists and arts organizations during the COVID-19 pandemic. For artists’ resources during this time, please go to our updating news feed, and our classifieds section of Artists’ Resources.
