ALI COVID-19 ECONOMIC IMPACTS PROJECT

There are two emergencies unfolding at once

One is the health crisis that we are all living in the urgency of. The other is the economic catastrophe that is unfolding for billions, and which threatens to define our society for the next generation. Our first step must be to understand the scale and intricacy of it.

If you are an artist, cultural worker, freelance content creator, or creative gig worker, you have likely already seen work opportunities disappear, and are likely anticipating more. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown in very short order how fragile the economic existence of the precariat is. You can (anonymously) REPORT YOUR LOSSES HERE (sheet 1), and help us determine the true scale of impact.

On Sheet 2, you can find 60+ direct relief funds that have been set up by artists, activists, and mutual aid groups. Use this to identify sources of support, and to drive donors, small and large, to funds providing direct relief.

PHASE 3 -

SURVEY OF INEFFABLE ECONOMICS

If you are an affected worker of any kind - arts, healthcare, service, education, or any field at all - thank you for taking a few moments to fill out the following short survey about work in the age of Covid-19. You are invited to slow down and allow 5-10 minutes of reflective thought to contribute to this collection.

There have been a lot of data collection projects and surveys seeking to capture the impacts of Covid-19 on vulnerable workers, frontline workers, artists, small businesses, families, etc etc. There have also been numerous halting, flawed efforts to provide relief to people - some of them working better than others. There are a thousand resource lists for workers to sift through every day - many pointing to one another.

The hours spent finding relief, navigating lists and links, and filling out forms is its own kind of labor. And yet all this data, the resultant relief efforts, and the day to day experience of millions like you are not in alignment with one another. Perhaps the surveys aren't asking the right questions, or perhaps the data aren't getting to the people who are really equipped to help.

Your answers here will be paired with other economic data, and aggregated into a narrative in service to a different kind of economy - one without precarity or vulnerability, that will be resilient to the crises that are still to come. There are no correct ways to answer these questions - their interpretation is left up to you. Please contribute your experience today!

PHASE 1 - Report your Losses

Artists, Culture Workers, Freelancers, Gig_Event Economy Losses Due to Covid-19 Cancellations

This project, launched on March 13, 2020, was the first effort to begin quantifying the economic losses being experienced by one of our economy’s most precarious sectors: art, culture, and creative workers - who are so often caught in a gig and event economy without salaries, security, benefits, and who experienced massive, large scale work and income loss even before the coronavirus began infecting tens of thousands.

DATA FROM ALI’s BIT.ly/Artsandcovid:

LOSSES

500 creative practitioners (artists, freelancers, gig workers) in 2 weeks responded to a call to report their losses as a result of Covid-19 lockdowns and cancellations.

500 artists reporting represented 684 dependents: or for each worker, 1.4 people are dependent

TOTAL REALIZED LOSSES in the first 2 weeks of the shutdown: $4.49 million ($9,382 per creative worker)

ANTICIPATED LOSSES, MARCH-JUNE 2020: $8.62 million ($17,962 per creative worker)

GRASSROOTS FUNDRAISING

63 grassroots direct-to-artist relief funds identified in the first 2 weeks

COLLECTIVE TOTAL RAISED: $1.37 million

TOTAL RAISED MINUS TOP 3 FUNDS: $493,900

3 funds account for 63% of the successful grassroots funding so far

RESOURCE LINKS FOR IMPACT DATA

• WE ASKED ART WORKERS HOW COVID-19 IMPACTS THEIR WORK AND FINANCES via Arthandler

• Lower East Side cultural organization losses courtesy of Fourth Arts Block

• Impact Survey and Data Report by Dance/NYC

• Collection of Surveys and Data Projects by New Yorkers for Culture and Arts

• New Yorkers for Culture and Arts Impact Survey

• NEA Report: Artists and Other Cultural Workers (April 2019)