Tips for supporting your artist mates in the time of COVID

So here we are, wandering around the tail end of 2020 in a vaguely traumatised haze, wondering what the hell happened to this year and which ancient deity we should be making offerings to for it to stop.

Even though things are starting to crank up again many artists are in a bad place financially, thanks to the cancellation of gigs and festivals, overall economic slowdown meaning people have less disposable income for art, books, music and merch, and the disappearance of a lot of casual day jobs that were keeping artistic careers afloat.

Plus arts funding has gone a bit Hunger Games, with several grants snapping closed earlier than scheduled due to the sheer volume of applications. Bear in mind also that grant applications take time and a specific set of bureaucracy-wrangling skills which can fence people out from applying in the first place.

So, how can we support our artist mates? Here are some ideas…

Game the algorithm

Like, comment, subscribe, react, repost, check in, tag, share… All those apparently meaningless little social media twitches can help local artists increase their visibility in an internet landscape dominated by bots, meme pages, and ads for t-shirts saying not to mess with you because you were born in April and have a rescue beagle. If you - like so many others - don’t have the coin to support the arts right now, a share and a heart can help your faves get a few more eyeballs.

Buy their stuff if you can

If you do still have some of that good old-fashioned disposable income, now’s a great time to support local artists by buying art, books, music, merchandise… there’s a vast array of physical and digital goodies out there. Support artists you love on Patreon and similar platforms, or tip online if they've made that an option. If you’re particularly flush, how about commission some bespoke artwork, poetry or music now for Christmas presents?

Support live gigs

Where live gigs are happening again, give them some love. Even if it's weird because the crowd's a fifth of what it used to be, you’re not supposed to dance, and the venue's been reconfigured into some sort of football field lightly garnished with chairs to meet social distancing regulations. And speaking of which…

Support venues

I know you can have a great night out with one strategic shandy and an entree-sized chips, but if you can buy a decent feed now's the time to do so. Many venues can have fewer patrons in the space, but it costs just as much to keep the lights on. It's a stale old hospo joke, but it's true - if you don't eat, we both starve.

Try new stuff

The key to keeping things happening is to support what’s already happening, even if it’s outside your usual wheelhouse. If you're big into live music, check out an art gallery. If you're all over visual art, suss out a spoken word event. If you don't usually engage with works by younger or older artists, Indigenous artists, disabled artists, artists from different cultures, artforms you think are too posh or too lowbrow… try it. Worst case scenario, you’ve lost an hour and learned a little bit more about yourself.

Best case scenario, you discover some wonderful new thing you didn’t even know was your jam.

And with your support, there’s a better chance it’ll survive.