March 16 — MANO Update: COVID-19 and the Cultural Sector

 Hel­lo MANO Mem­bers and Allies in the Arts Community,

Over the past days we have been writ­ing drafts of this email only to start again as we find the sit­u­a­tion has changed. This will be an ongo­ing expe­ri­ence as the COVID-19 epi­dem­ic unfolds over the com­ing months. This is a chal­leng­ing time for our var­i­ous inter­con­nect­ed com­mu­ni­ties and as indi­vid­u­als and requires us to pull togeth­er to sup­port not only those with­in the cul­tur­al sec­tor need­ing sup­port but with­in our broad­er com­mu­ni­ty. All MANO in-per­son events and pro­grams are postponed/cancelled indef­i­nite­ly, with online and phone tak­ing their place.

Many cul­tur­al orga­ni­za­tions have already can­celed pro­gram­ming and activ­i­ties, with oth­ers announc­ing over the com­ing days. The next months will be chal­leng­ing and we want to ensure every­one has the sup­port they need.

As always at MANO our focus dur­ing this time will be cul­ti­vat­ing com­mu­ni­ty, mutu­al aid, sol­i­dar­i­ty, and coun­ter­ing iso­la­tion. We will be main­tain­ing web and phone office hours Tues­day-Thurs­day 10am-5pm over the com­ing weeks and are avail­able to talk with boards, staff, and oth­ers as a sound­ing board and for advice as need­ed. We will also be hold­ing week­ly online check-in meet­ings with our mem­ber­ship and will announce addi­tion­al dis­cus­sion forums for the broad­er sec­tor in the com­ing days.

We will be con­tin­u­ing to work with oth­er Arts Ser­vice Orga­ni­za­tions, fun­ders, MPs, MPPs, and munic­i­pal gov­ern­ments to devel­op sup­ports for the cul­tur­al sec­tor that are equi­tably dis­trib­uted and account for pre­car­i­ous work of those not cov­ered by EI, as well as cash­flow sup­port for organizations.

Please reach out to MANO staff if you have any ques­tions, or want to dis­cuss anything.

With sol­i­dar­i­ty and care,
Ben Donoghue
Adri­ana Rosselli