Take Action Now and Help Rebuild Nova Scotia's Live Performance Sector

A Roadmap for Recovering: Rebuilding Nova Scotia's Live Performance Sector

We Are Stronger Together

The time for action is now and we need your voice to ensure a successful post-pandemic recovery and rebuilding of the live performance sector. The Nova Scotia Live Performance Recovery Coalition is being created to tackle front-line advocacy and communicate the critical need for both emergency and recovery-focused investment in our sector.

The coalition is working to advance the following key points

Key point #1: Lifeline - The live performance sector in Nova Scotia must be provincially recognized as a “hardest hit sector” that requires critical emergency investment, for both nonprofits and private enterprises, in the current fiscal year to bridge the gap to the recovery phase of the pandemic crisis.
Key point #2: Recovery - The Operational Support for Cultural Organizations Program has not seen a budget increase in over 20 years. Since then inflation has grown 50% and continues to grow as a result of the pandemic. New investment for operations will facilitate the stability required for a successful economic recovery in the post-pandemic world.
Key point #3: Build Back Better - New investment in equity, diversity and inclusion initiatives, sponsorship matching, live presentation programs, human resources, and consumer confidence marketing projects will stimulate an efficient and robust recovery.

How can you get involved?

Step 1 - Read the report. A Roadmap for Recovery - Rebuilding Nova Scotia's Live Performance Sector

Your sector colleagues have captured many of the ideas, observations and recommendations that have been brought forward by sector representatives on sector calls over the past 20+ months. These have been concisely summarized in the report. We invite you to review this document and use it in your individual advocacy work. It is a living document that will continue to evolve with ongoing sector input. You can find the report here.

Step 2 - Join the coalition. Provide your feedback and join our list of supporters.

We'd love to hear from you. Send us your input so we can continue to improve the report. Please follow this link. Let us know if we can add you to the list of organizations/companies endorsing this report. Others who have signed on include:

Atlantic Film Makers Cooperative (Halifax Citadel-Sable Island)
Atlantic Flamenco Productions Society (Dartmouth South)
Atlantic Presenters Association (Halifax Chebucto)
Bela Rose Arts Centre (Clayton Park West)
Cape Breton Music Industry Cooperative (Sydney-Membertou)
Cape Breton Partnership (Richmond)
Capella Regalis Men & Boys Choir (Halifax Chebucto)
Colour Theory (Bedford South)
Cultural Federations of Nova Scotia (Halifax Citadel-Sable Island)
Culture Link CIC (Halifax Citadel-Sable Island)
Dance Nova Scotia (Halifax-Sable Island)
deCoste Performing Arts Centre (Pictou West)
FéCANE (Dartmouth South)
inesS® aerial circus & fitnesS (Halifax Atlantic)
Josephine Clarke Textiles (Richmond)
Kinetic Studio (Halifax Chebucto)
Kinship Performing Arts Centre Association (Lunenburg)
La Société Saint-Pierre (Les Trois Pignons) (Inverness)
Lighthouse Performing Arts Centre (Halifax Citadel-Sable Island)
Link Performing Arts Society (Halifax Citadel-Sable Island)
Mocean Dance (Halifax Citadel-Sable Island)
Music Nova Scotia (Halifax Needham)
Pictou Lobster Carnival (Pictou West)
Ross Creek Arts Center (Kings North)
Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo (Dartmouth North and Halifax Citadel-Sable Island)
Savoy Theatre (Glace Bay - Dominion)
Shakespeare By The Sea (Halifax Citadel-Sable Island)
Scotia Festival of Music (Halifax Needham)
Sound Source Pro Audio and Lighting (Inverness)
Stan Rogers Folk Festival (Guysborourgh-Tracadie)
TD Halifax Jazz Festival (Halifax Citadel-Sable Island)
Theatre Nova Scotia (Halifax Citadel-Sable Island)
The Grace Arts Centre (Colchester North)
The Villians Theatre (Halifax Chebucto)

Step 3 - Email your MLA below. We also encourage you to call and/or request a follow-up meeting with your MLA.

Please take a few minutes and send a letter of support to your MLA to communicate the critical need for new investment in the Nova Scotia Live Performance Sector. See below to send a letter (takes less than 2 minutes to complete).

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Dear [recipient name and position will go here], [your jurisdiction will go here],

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Best wishes on your recent success in becoming a member of the 64th General Assembly of the Nova Scotia Legislature. I would like to personally thank you for your service to the province and commend you for your leadership.

The live performance sector in Nova Scotia is a critical economic building block for the province. According to the Culture Satellite Account (2020), culture contributes $989 million to Nova Scotia’s GDP and accounts for more than 14,000 jobs employing more people than farming, fishing and forestry combined. It is also important to note that Nova Scotian’s overwhelmingly agree that culture provides substantial benefits to their overall wellbeing.

>80% of Nova Scotians say that culture helps create community identity
>76% of Nova Scotians say that culture helps connect people from different communities and 
   backgrounds
>76% of Nova Scotians say that culture makes them proud of where they live
>Culture is a key driver to attract visitors and new residents to Nova Scotia

The live performance sector has suffered tremendous hardship throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the last two years, we have seen drastic reductions to income, workforce, and wellbeing. The sector has endured repeated and prolonged closures, layoffs and terminations, the loss of highly professionalized staff, and alarming impacts on mental health.

The live performance sector was the first to shut down and will be the last to fully reopen. Federally, the live performance sector has been categorized as a “hardest hit” tourism and hospitality sector. 

The Nova Scotia Live Performance Recovery Coalition has come together to communicate the critical need for both emergency and recovery-focused investment in the sector. Throughout the last two years, members of the coalition have captured many of the ideas, observations and recommendations that have been brought forward by sector representatives. These have been concisely summarized in “A Roadmap for Recovery: Rebuilding Nova Scotia’s Live Performance Sector”. 

The report outlines immediate actions the province of Nova Scotia can take to affect significant and meaningful change in the live performance sector while also creating positive and long-term economic and societal growth in a post-pandemic world.

Specifically, the report presents investment recommendations founded on three key points: 

Key point #1: Lifeline - The live performance sector in Nova Scotia must be provincially recognized as a “hardest hit sector” that requires critical emergency investment, for both nonprofits and private enterprises, in the current fiscal year to bridge the gap to the recovery phase of the pandemic crisis.

Key point #2: Recovery - The Operational Support for Cultural Organizations Program has not seen a budget increase in over 20 years. Since then inflation has grown 50% and continues to grow as a result of the pandemic. New investment for operations will facilitate the stability required for a successful economic recovery in the post-pandemic world.

Key point #3: Build Back Better - New investment in equity, diversity and inclusion initiatives, sponsorship matching, live presentation programs, human resources, and consumer confidence marketing projects will stimulate an efficient and robust recovery.

This work aims to serve as a complement to the "Building Back Better" report delivered by our colleagues at the Creative Nova Scotia Leadership Council and Arts Nova Scotia by making specific recommendations based on their findings. We invite you to review this document by visiting https://tinyurl.com/NSLiveRecovery.

Rather than simply recover, the overarching theme of the report is to spearhead creative strategies and leverage partnerships across government and the private sector to arrive at a more vibrant, inclusive, and sustainable live performance sector in a post-pandemic world. 

I firmly believe that post-pandemic economic recovery efforts must include the serious consideration of "A Roadmap for Recovery: Rebuilding Nova Scotia’s Live Performance Sector". As the MLA for [your jurisdiction will go here], I am asking you to support the live performance sector as a critical component of post-pandemic economic recovery in the Province of Nova Scotia. Thank you in advance for this consideration.

Sincerely,
[your name will go here]
[your email address will go here] [your location will go here]

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Take Action Now and Help Rebuild Nova Scotia's Live Performance Sector

Take Action Now and Help Rebuild Nova Scotia's Live Performance Sector

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