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1283 ppl applied to @JerwoodArts for the £20k bursary. We all applied because we need the security of knowing we will be able to pay our rent and put food in the fridge. 33 ppl will get £20k and 1250 of us will not. Our application wasn't clear enough or others were preferred
It is amazing that @JerwoodArts will provide £20k to 33 people and I am truly happy that those 33 people will get that potentially life-changing email. It also cannot lie on the shoulders of one organisation to provide the freelance sector with this support
We make up 70% of the cultural sector. We enable the sector to do what it does. We have been crucial in digitising the sector in this pandemic. 1283 people asking for a security package to be able to survive is the harsh reality that we are facing as workers
I work full time doing a whole range of creative things, I provide what I believe is a meaningful contribution to Manchester's cultural scene alongside many, many talented freelancers in this city and I probably won't earn more than £15k this year. What does that say about me?
What does that say about the sector I commit my skills to? That you don't value my flexibility as a freelancer? That I'm an add on at the end of the budgeting? You'll pay is if you can?
It took me 2 working days to draft and write the @JerwoodArts. That's £250 to me. I knew the numbers were against me, but more importantly that they would be against us all. 33 out of 1283? This is a crisis. We're at burnout and we earn nothing.
... 'what's the solution?' large organisations ask us. Well, it's not my job or responsibility to work it out for you, but using your power and resource to get behind UBI would be a pleasant start
And tomorrow I'll carry on dividing up time to apply for everything that feels right and doing the sacred work I am lucky enough to be getting paid for and try to not think about the toxic mass-inequality we maintain in the cultural sector. We all need £20k, we all need security
I blame absolutely noone for deciding that their emotional, physical and financial wellbeing is worth more than all of this. I'm wondering if I might do the same and, with huge sadness, move into a different sector which doesn't give me endless anxiety and worry
I would love to hug every freelancer in this sector, I am so so pleased that 33 ppl will be able to read that email and receive the support they truly deserve and I am waiting, patiently, for NPOs and ppl with power to hold a hand out to the rest of us. It's time to rethink
