It is important for an online petition to support the ongoing daily protests and sit in, as more attention needs to be given to this matter so that government can respond.
It is essential because the longer a response is delayed, the longer it will take to distribute the funds to artists that are in dire need of the funds to support basic living expenses. Many live performers are not able to work at all due to Covid-19 restrictions and need the funding to survive.
It is important that we can see that the PESP grant from treasury has legitimately been distributed to artists and that artists will be the key beneficiaries of the newly proposed structure. The artists under Im4theArts are calling for a published list of all PESP beneficiaries and the amounts granted to each in order to verify council's claims and justify why artists have been asked to reduce their initial contracted subsidies.
It is important that this issue is highlighted and that the way in which council has handled the PESP and treated artists in the process is brought to the light of the general public. The issue needs to be escalated because artists are starving while the allocated funds are being held by the NAC until artists commit to lesser contracts.
High level attention and action need to be brought to this matter. Soon.
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