The Economic, Social, and Cultural impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Independent Arts Workers in the United Kingdom

COVID-19威胁表演艺术；事实证明，关闭剧院和禁止公众集会对整个英国乃至全世界的电影行业造成了经济上的破坏。大流行引发了一系列行业主导的战略，旨在减轻财务后果，并在保持社交距离的情况下更好地吸引受众。2019冠状病毒病影响了该行业的各个层面，但对自由职业者——独立艺术工作者（law）——构成了生存威胁，他们占英国行业劳动力的60%（2017年欧盟劳动力调查）。这场危机使法律工作者脆弱的工作条件、经济可持续性、精神健康和社区支持网络成为人们关注的焦点。法律经常被行业和研究人员所忽视，然而，正是它们的不稳定性使它们成为适应性的先驱，负责该行业的关键创新。事实可能证明，法律对该行业在2019冠状病毒病后的复苏至关重要。有必要调查COVID-19对法律的影响，以及行业内为克服这些影响而制定的广泛的创造性解决方案。人们面临着越来越大的压力，需要收集“可靠的实时数据”，以调查2019冠状病毒病对英国戏剧行业的财务、文化和社会潜在长期影响。这一大流行病对法律的影响特别复杂和广泛。TRG Arts的一项调查显示，60%的律师预测他们的收入“到2020年将减少一半以上”，而50%的律师表示他们的工作全部被取消。来自TRG艺术和剧院信托基金的行业研究人员已经开展了调查，研究了COVID-19对商业场馆和国家投资组合组织的财务影响，但对法律（例如）的后果的研究还不够。演员、导演、制片人、作家、戏剧制作人、技术人员)以及收入损失和项目取消数据之外的小型中小企业。2020年5月，皇家宫廷剧院的维姬·费瑟斯通（Vicky Featherstone）表示，支持“大量自由职业者和自雇劳动力”的重要性，她认为这已被行业“视为理所当然”。我们的研究填补了这一空白，不仅捕捉和分析了COVID-19对经济的影响，还分析了法律对社会和文化的影响。我们将比较英格兰、威尔士、北爱尔兰和苏格兰的地区反应，以及种族和社会经济群体的差异。我们的目标是记录和调查2019冠状病毒病对法律的影响，确定该部门的不平等现象，调查2019冠状病毒病后工作类型的变化，并帮助制定该部门如何走出这场危机的战略。我们将调查2019冠状病毒病的财务后果与行业生存的创意战略之间的联系，这些战略包括社会支持网络、艺术场所和法律之间的沟通举措，以及疫情后混合媒体工作的发展。我们的研究详细分析了2019冠状病毒病对法律及其服务组织的经济、文化和社会影响，旨在为行业复苏战略提供信息。

COVID-19 threatens the performing arts; closures of theatres and outlawing of public gatherings have proven financially devastating to the industry across the United Kingdom and, indeed, the world. The pandemic has sparked a wide range of industry-led strategies designed to alleviate financial consequences and improve audience capture amidst social distancing. COVID-19 has affected all levels of the sector but poses an existential threat to freelancers--Independent Arts Workers (IAWs)--who make up 60% of industry workforce in the UK (EU Labour Force Survey 2017). The crisis has put a spotlight on the vulnerable working conditions, economic sustainability, mental wellbeing, and community support networks of IAWs. IAWs are often overlooked by the industry and researchers, however it is their very precarity that makes them pioneers of adaptability responsible for key innovation within the sector. IAWs may prove essential for the industry's regrowth post-COVID-19. An investigation is necessary into the impact of COVID-19 on IAWs and the wide-ranging creative solutions developing within the industry to overcome them.There has been increasing pressure to gather 'robust, real-time data' to investigate the financial, cultural, and social potential long-term consequences of COVID-19 on the UK theatre industry. The impact of the pandemic on IAWs is particularly complex and wide-ranging. A TRG Arts survey stated that 60% of IAWs predict their income will 'more than halve in 2020' while 50% have had 100% of their work cancelled. Industry researchers from TRG Arts and Theatres Trust have launched investigations examining the financial impact of COVID-19 on commercial venues and National Portfolio Organisations, but there has been insufficient research into the consequences for IAWs (eg. actors, directors, producers, writers, theatre makers, technicians) and the smaller SMEs beyond income loss and project cancellation data. In May 2020, Vicky Featherstone of the Royal Court Theatre, stated the importance of support for the 'massive freelance and self-employed workforce' she believed has been 'taken for granted' by the industry. Our study fills this gap by capturing and analysing not only the economic impact, but the social and cultural transformations caused by COVID-19 by and for IAWs. We will compare regional responses across England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland as well as variations across racial and socio-economic groups. Our aims are to document and investigate the impact of COVID-19 on IAWs, identify inequalities in the sector, investigate changes in the type of work produced post-COVID-19, and help develop strategies for how the sector can move forward from this crisis. We will investigate connections between the financial consequences of COVID-19 and creative strategies for industry survival including social support networks, communication initiatives between arts venues and IAWs, and the development of mixed-media work in the wake of the pandemic. Our study scrutinizes the economic, cultural, and social impact of COVID-19 on IAWs and the organisations that serve them with the aim of informing strategies for sector recovery.