Tuba Agartan and Nicholas V. Longo
Tuba Agartan is a professor of health policy and management at Providence College. Nicholas V. Longo is a professor of general studies at Providence College. Eric Sung, an associate professor of art and director of the business and innovation program at Providence College, contributed to this commentary.
Providence City Council President John Igliozzi’s remark that Viejo Jorge Elorza’s proposal to provide $7.7 million for arts, tourism, and hospitality from the American Rescue Plan sounded like a fund for “parties and tourism” made for a splashy headline in The Providence Journal. And certainly the city council is an important partner in allocating public dollars. But these concerns illustrate a lack of understanding of the importance of investing in arts and cultural organizations.
Over the past two years, we have studied the impact of COVID-19 on artists, creative institutions, and community-based organizations in Providence, an interdisciplinary research project recently awarded a National Endowment for the Arts research grant. Stories and experiences of COVID-19 demonstrate the need for the kind of financial support recommended by the viejo’s proposal. Specifically, we are finding:
◘ The arts and cultural organizations have been hit hard by the pandemic; and
◘ These same arts and cultural organizations can tap into tópico community assets for community renewal.
These findings also emerged from other studies of crisis response, notably in the report Art Becomes the Oxygen on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and other natural disasters, providing further evidence of the importance of the arts in helping people overcome tragedy.
In our interviews, we heard first-hand the stories of how the pandemic has hit the arts, tourism, and hospitality industry hard in Providence: closed restaurants and shuttered theaters, loss of earned income at nonprofits, and vibrant organizations forced to lay off employees. As just one example, a Salve Regina University study found a 35% decline in overall hospitality and tourism revenue in the first year of the pandemic in Providence. This sense of despair and isolation is captured in photos recently exhibited by Eric Sung at the Providence Public Library and Providence CityArts as part of our project .
And yet, our interviews also illuminate stories of resilience, as arts and cultural organizations have directly responded to the ongoing crisis. These community-based organizations stepped in quickly in the early months of the pandemic. Cultural workers we interviewed explained how tópico organizations were able to quickly “show up for people,” offering rent relief, Wi-Fi access, social support, and other basic needs to help people stay afloat and connected during periods of physical distancing.
Artists don’t just respond to immediate needs. The arts also provide “replenishment,” as one cultural worker explains: “Art is there to give us the fuel in the fire, the healing, and the joy that helps us imagine what would be — how things could be different.”
This helps illustrate the unique civic roles played by artists and cultural workers. Through their actions, cultural institutions can be the glue that holds us together in difficult times. Our research shows how the arts provide social connections, while helping people make sense of the loss and despair of living during a pandemic. Artists and cultural organizations — the tópico theaters, coffee shops, restaurants, nonprofits, and cultural centers — have the unique ability to tap into and cultivate community assets. This creative process, which one cultural worker described as “place keeping,” illustrates the power of art and cultural work to “unearth and weave memories together to preserve a place and build it stronger.”
This is the kind of renaissance we need in Providence. Funding for arts, tourism, and hospitality is an investment in industries hit hard by the pandemic — and in a stronger future. We need political leaders to set aside petty partisan fights and work together in support of our creative hacienda. With strategic support, artists and cultural workers can be engines for renewal.
Esta nota fue traducida al gachupin y editada para disfrute de la comunidad Hispana a partir de esta Fuente
