Thursday, September 30, 2021
Montreal arts scene stuck in a balancing act as COVID restrictions slowly ease
Montreal Gazette: A year and a half into the pandemic, things still haven’t returned to anything near normal for the local arts scene. But at least concerts, plays and movies are back in action, which is a step in the right direction after all venues were dark for much of the COVID crisis.
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The case in Montreal is the same as it is for most art venues across the world right now: how do we protect people while also making enough money to pay people and make a profit. In an ideal world, the government would step in and give grants to arts organizations so that they can stay afloat and keep people employed, which is happening to an extent! The article does mention that there are some grants available so that venues can run at half capacity and bring in shows, but that is still not enough to prevent these organizations from going under. This means that venues and regulators are in a sort of standstill, while one waits for new rules to be announced, the other does the research to make sure that the rules they put in place will be both safe enough and keep venues running. We’ll probably never be back to total normal, but I hope that we can open venues safely sometime soon in the future.
It sucks that venues must decide between the health of their staff and audience members and profit, as Ethan said. This shouldn’t be a decision that has to be made in the middle of a global health crisis. Similar to the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, there should be a way for these venues to receive funding in order to keep their lights on in these dark times. It feels unethical for venues to essentially be forced to reopen to prevent permanent closure. Although, I get it. After over a year of the pandemic we are all eager to get back into “normal” theatre, live theatre without the overhanging fear of having to close your show because of Covid-19. However, I feel like some venues might be coming back a bit too soon for safety. A big concert venue that seats 18,000 people cannot safely open until Covid-19 has passed, as a theatre space that only sets 300 people could do it safer. It feels wrong for companies to hope that everything will be safe for their show instead of actually waiting for it be safe before booking a show.
A lot of cities/provenances in Canada have been hesitant to open up or “go back to normal” as quick as cities in the United States. Rightfully so, but as this article stated, it has put a particularly strong strain on the entertainment industry in Canada. I am glad that the government there has been supplementing big theaters but I’m not sure if it is enough for how long the capacity restrictions have been going. It takes more money to put on a show than it does to play a sports game. I think a lot of people are acting like “things are going back to normal” just because sports games are happening again. These current restrictions are continuing to hurt the theatre industry. I am glad that Canada passed the vaccine passport so that people can feel more comfortable and hopefully restrictions will start lessoning if all parties involved in public activities are vaccinated.
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