Commonwealth arts sectors suffers nearly 15,000 cancelations

From March 16-22, the Mass Cultural Council polled the Commonwealth’s cultural sector to begin to understand the economic impact of the COVID19/Coronavirus public health crisis on the individuals and nonprofits we serve. In just under a week, the council heard from 566 cultural nonprofits and 595 individual artists/independent teaching artists-humanists-scientists. The results are striking and demand attention. In just under a week, the Commonwealth’s nonprofit cultural organizations reported a loss of more than $55.7M in revenue. This is not a projection; this is actual lost income reported to date. In the same period, our individual artists and independent teaching artists, humanists-scientists reported a total of more than $2.89M in lost personal income. Again, this is not a projection, it is real data. Mass Cultural Council is sharing this data with our legislative partners on Beacon Hill who are considering proposals to offset the disruptive impacts of the coronavirus and the practice of social distancing will have on the stateeconomy.