The Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown hit the visual arts sector hard. CVAN quickly identified the need for an advocate and stepped up to this role. We are an organisation that can unite arts workers and artists, that can campaign for equality and parity, and give a platform to a wide range of sector voices, helping to guide and support our professional communities through a crisis.

Despite the challenging conditions of recent years, the period 2019 to 2021 has been one of our busiest. This is a glimpse of what we’ve been up to.

  • In 2020, CVAN England brought together a group made up of sector support organisations, a devolved nations coalition and other collectives to form a Visual Arts Alliance which has produced three pieces of campaigning work. 
  • We launched Art is Essential, an online campaign to emphasise the value of the visual arts, and to bring the sector back together with renewed confidence. 
  • A series of online events set the conditions for the Fair & Equitable programme and analysed the impact of the pandemic on artists’ lives. This evidence is now being used to support the case for additional investment into artists and independent art workers, as part of the ongoing pandemic cultural recovery work.
  • CVAN campaigned for changes to the Museum and Galleries Exhibition Tax Relief. As a result, a sunset clause was extended to 2024 and the level of relief doubled. YVAN (our Yorkshire & Humber network) delivered a national webinar workshop programme to enable take-up by current non-claimants and to ensure that knowledge of the significance of the relief was shared across the sector. 
  • Our online programme is now considered to be a good resource for career professional development and promotes a national network that feels connected.
  • Armed with specific feedback from engagement with more than 30,000 people via our networks, our key partners and the Visual Arts Alliance over the past six months, we’re now in a great position to pilot and develop our Fair & Equitable programme.

Our feedback has told us that CVAN has been a source of genuine and valuable support for the sector over the course of this crisis.