Friday Selection Box: 17th July 2020

Art for social change – or social justice?

A great blog from François Matarasso exploring the nature of the ‘social impact of participation in the arts’.

Online gaming: the rise of a multi-billion dollar industry

A stunning example of storytelling through infographics with some numbers to make us all think.

Going solo: how starting solo self-employment affects income and well being

Some very timely research from the Institute for Fiscal Studies for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation about the experience of solo self-employed people

Summary

Full report

How to spot and tackle burnout

This article is based on research with women leaders but it is applicable to all.

This occupational phenomena clouds the mind, where a person struggles to assess their situation clearly, and they often end up beating themselves up for not being good enough.

Doomscrolling

Are you caught in doomscrolling? Bingeing on doom-and-gloom news has probably been part of all our lives at some point in recent months. This not only has a personal impact but you can be in danger of passing it on to others. There are ways to break the habit.

William Morris Gallery

A heartfelt and poignant piece from Teanne Andrews documenting her experience as a black woman working in the cultural sector. She poses a powerful question at the end:

Now you know how I feel about the way I was treated, and it’s undeniable it was unfair and without real grounds. Now you know better, will you do better?

Dance4 Artist Leader appointment

An interesting response from Dance 4 to rebalancing the power dynamics of cultural organisations. Dance4 has created this role to collaborate with the Board, staff and stakeholders in considering new ways of working. Its part-time and fixed term and I’ll be watching with interest to see what happens.

ExcludedUK

ExcludedUK is a newly formed non-profit NGO and serves as a collective platform for those entirely or largely excluded from the UK Government’s Covid-19 financial support measures. This has caught many in our sector – people who had just become freelance, Company Directors, and those who had just changed jobs to name a few. If you are impacted it is worth joining ExcludedUK, they offer support as well as campaigning.