Equity plans Monday protest over arts cuts
NewsMessage from the actors’ union:
Save the Date: Action on Monday 14th November, 11am -12pm
Equity is organising an action to take place on Monday 14th November at 11am calling on the Arts Council England to protect the creative workforce in those companies/venues which have been cut including the ENO, the Donmar Warehouse and Hampstead Theatre.
The march will include Equity members and others, assembling outside the Coliseum Theatre at 11am for a march to the Arts Council offices via the Donmar Warehouse. We will be bringing press attention to the fact that decisions by the Arts Council have been made without any work force plan being put in place or indeed without any thought given to the devastating impacts on the work force at all!
To maximise the event’s success, boost press attention and highlight the ENO workforce in particular we discussed with the Deps the possibility of organising for you to perform outside the Arts Council’s Offices. The Deps will continue to coordinate this with you, and if we can we will engage orchestra members as well.
The event should finish at around noon or just after.
I am terribly sorry to ask the tough questions but – Why are they protesting the cuts? Classical music can’t sell its product outside of a very small market niche which does not represent the broader population.
So – Why should the broader population bear the cost of a declining industry?
Classical music should reinvent itself, sell more if it can, or die. The people don’t want to pay for it.
Well said !
I’m trying to imagine a world full of people like you. It doesn’t bear thinking about.
Why indeed….
Well, you could replace ‘industry’ with any minority animal, vegetable or mineral and you might then see why.
(say Pandas, traditional crafts and foods, some overly-mined rare resource…)
Because we think it is worth it – once it’s lost, it’s lost for ever!
I don’t mind paying taxes that are then spent in part on a host of things I don’t use or benefit from – but I appreciate they may be necessary for the greater good of society even if I don’t ‘use’ them.
You ask how might classical music re-invent itself?
Here’s one way: https://www.eno.org/whats-on/relaxed-performances/
Now tell me that that is not actively ‘re-inventing itself’ so that people who might otherwise feel intimidated (mentally or physically) by ‘Opera’ can attend.
You may – or, I hope, may not – be surprised to learn that a good number of disabled people attend these performances as they are then able to express themselves as themselves without being told to ‘shh’.
The link details it far better than I can, but if you can get this kind of access for someone who may benefit from the experience, and you [ACE] then take it away (for balance, I do not know if other Opera performances by other companies do the same), their lives will be the poorer for it.
I don’t mind paying for this kind of kindness to my fellow man – do you?