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Performing artists and precarity: The true impact of Covid
A new book examining what the pandemic meant for freelance performers has been published. Mimi Doulton thinks its an invaluable resource for researchers and policymakers – and it’s free to download.
At the end of 2024, Philip Hancock and Melissa Tyler from the University of Essex’s Future of Creative Work team released an open-access book about work in the contemporary entertainment industries. Written against the backdrop of the pandemic, the book considers its impact on freelance and self-employed performers in the UK.
Each chapter is an academic article in its own right, with an abstract, conclusion and wide range of references. This structure makes it an invaluable resource for informing future research, government and funding policy.
However for those who take a non-academic interest in the topic there is also plenty to be gained from reading this text.
Evolution of freelancing
Hancock and Tyler open by making a wider assessment of precarity in all forms of freelance work and self-employment, before zeroing in on the plight of performing arts freelancers.
It is fascinating to read the history of how freelancing evolved out of the industrial revolution and was subsequently re-shaped over the course of the 20th century. Their analysis then extends to include the effects of the 21st century phenomenon of the gig economy on this form of work.
The heart of the text is based on interviews and focus groups with freelance performers and includes some striking case studies. One example that stands out is of a puppeteer whose income from performing in the 2020-21 tax year was just 1.5% of their income from this same line of work in previous years.
This, combined with evidence about how SEISS (the Self-employed Income Support Scheme, that was available to freelancers who met certain conditions during Covid) failed to reach all those who needed it serves as a reminder of just how devastating the pandemic was.
It provoked me to reflect on the speed at which our industry has moved on from Covid without taking time to acknowledge its continuing reverberations in many of our colleagues’ lives.
What does it mean to be an artist?
In the context of the pandemic, when so many were unable to perform, Tyler and Hancock also touch on the existential question of what it means to be an artist, and how this is tied up with the concept of ‘success’ – both financially and professionally.
Although the blurred lines between personal and professional identity affect people in many lines of work, this issue seems particularly pertinent for those working in the arts: “If I’m not performing, then who am I?”
Although the book primarily explores the impact of Covid on freelance performers, it also touches on a number of structural issues that were deeply embedded in the performing arts industry before 2020.
The sections about audiences not being accustomed to paying for online arts content resonate with conversations about streaming that have been ongoing for two decades. As the Labour government talks about protecting workers’ rights, one can’t help but wonder when a government is going to talk about enshrining more rights for freelancers.
Rich emotional content
This is a book that emanates respect for its subject matter – freelance performers – and for how many managed to navigate the pandemic despite losing all their work almost overnight.
Although an academic text, this book offers rich emotional content and an opportunity to finally start coming to terms with the devastating impact of Covid on freelancers in the performing arts.
It closes with recommendations for how performers might be spared some of these shocks in future: one can only hope decision makers take note.
Performing Artists and Precarity: Work in the Contemporary Entertainment Industries by Philip Hancock and Melissa Tyler is published by Palgrave McMillan as an open access book free to download here.
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