We can’t entirely blame COVID-19 for the current dire state of the arts, says PSRC’s Thibedeau. For too long, the sector has relied on inequitable funding structures and underpaid workers. Housing affordability and job instability have been a problem for years, as have the sector’s racial inequities. “These have been underlying challenges and issues for the industry for a very, very long time,” Thibedeau says. The pandemic hasn’t helped. “Now things are, like many things, more challenging, more dire.”
With employment in the arts and entertainment sector still down, plus inflation and rising housing costs, the sector may be closer to the edge of the cliff. While there’s no single path, the report does lay out a bridge to the other side.
Building that bridge, according to PSRC, will require a concerted effort by governments, nonprofits, businesses and philanthropists — and a variety of potential building blocks.
The list of the few dozen proposed solutions includes everything from the more straightforward and concrete (adjust noise ordinances so that musicians can play in public spaces later into the evening; alleviate child care expenses for artist-parents; expand Olympia’s and Tacoma’s cultural access programs statewide) to the more aspirational (“engage the larger business community in support of arts and culture,” “develop a sustainable business model for arts and culture”) and inventive (create a regional administrator or task a nonprofit with overseeing benefits for arts and culture workers, like a union).
While the report stresses that higher wages and access to affordable housing and benefits are paramount, it shies away from specifically endorsing or calling out more systemic solutions, like building such housing.
“There was some recognition by our consultants in doing this work that clearly the region's housing challenges are a driving factor in how the arts and culture community can actually operate,” Thibedeau says. “But this [report] is not a strategy to address housing,” he says, adding that PSRC is currently working on a regional housing strategy.
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August 08, 2022 at 07:02PM
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Report: Puget Sound's arts and culture sector in danger of exodus - Crosscut
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