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ABC Radio Sydney
Marcela Scheuner and James Bustar spoke to ABC Radio Sydney in an in depth chat involving Ben Eltham from Monash University.
Audio Property of ABC
July 26, 2021
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Marcela Scheuner and James Bustar spoke to ABC Radio Sydney in an in depth chat involving Ben Eltham from Monash University.
Audio Property of ABC
James Bustar spoke to ABC Radio Brisbane about the creation of the video and the reasons behind it, also discussing creativity during the lockdown.
ABC News wrote an emotional Digital Feature on the plight of the pandemic on the arts sector, and how many jobs have been lost. It is truly devestating.
You can read the whole article here;
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-25/arts-culture-covid-unemployment-jobkeeper/
Glam Adelaide wrote a feature piece on our plea for more support and the impact the last 18 months has had on entertainers Australia and Worldwide.
You can read the whole article here;
https://glamadelaide.com.au/australias-entertainment-community-rally-together-for-heart-rendering-plea-of-support/
SBS The Feed wrote a feature article focusing specifically on the circus side of entertainment. You can read the article here;
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/the-feed/we-re-losing-our-identity-the-impact-of-covid-on-circus-performers
Lindsay Webb had a very indepth conversation with ABC Gold Coast about the devastating impact the pandemic has had on the arts, and the double standards that are going on.
Learn more about Lindsay here http://www.lindsaywebb.com.au/
Marcela Scheuner spoke with Triple M 105.7 about the devastating impact the last 18 months has had on the entertainment industry financially and emotionally.
With Australia’s two biggest cities again in lockdown, the arts industry says it’s been hung out to dry.
Despite federal and state funding for individuals and businesses hit by rolling COVID-19 lockdowns, artists and entertainers feel forgotten.
Sydney-based juggler and comedian James Bustar says many in the industry have thrown in the towel since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Steve Bowen spoke to ABC Goulburn Murray about the affects of the pandemic on the arts industry. You can listen here at about 2:54:12
https://www.abc.net.au/radio/goulburnmurray/programs/breakfast/breakfast/13447392
Amid the latest spate of lockdowns across the country, a new video created by a Sydney-based entertainer brings home the devastating impact of COVID-19 on members of the arts community – from classical musicians to comedians, actors and magicians.
James Bustar – whose website describes him as “Australia’s Madman of Comedy and Juggling” – says he made the video because he felt the sector was being overlooked, and he hopes it will help raise awareness of how serious the situation had become for many artists.
Entertainer James Bustar has compiled a heart-rending video in which members of the arts community tell of the devastation of the pandemic on lives and livelihoods and the need for further government income support to be extended to the arts.
In the emotion-charged 10-minute video, prominent artists from a wide range of disciplines speak of the loneliness and despair combined with deepening concern that the arts are being overlooked.
MEDIA RELEASEJULY 13, 2021 AUSTRALIA’S ENTERTAINERS AND ARTS COMMUNITY IN HEART RENDING VIDEO IN CALL FOR SUPPORT AMID DEVASTATION OF PANDEMIC ON LIVES AND CAREERS Entertainer James Bustar has compiled a heart rending video in
A group of cruise suppliers, representative of hundreds of businesses and individuals across Australia who depend on cruising for their livelihoods, today travelled to Canberra seeking support from Federal Parliamentarians for a pathway to enable the resumption of domestic cruising in Australia.
The cruise line industry has re-started on most other parts of the world but in Australia the docks are still closed. Before the pandemic, Australia had permanent year-round ships as
2020….Has been quite a year of more downs than ups it feels like…
Its impacted so many peoples mental health and been really tough. Being an extrovert I couldn’t just sit back and ride the ride. I had to be creative and I had to do something for me, but also the industry.
MEDIA RELEASE
JULY 16, 2021
AUSTRALIA’S ENTERTAINERS AND ARTS COMMUNITY IN HEART RENDING VIDEO IN CALL FOR SUPPORT AMID DEVASTATION OF PANDEMIC ON LIVES AND CAREERS
Entertainer James Bustar has compiled a heart rending video in which members of the arts community tell of the devastation of the pandemic on lives and livelihoods and the need for further government income support to be extended to the arts.
In the emotion-charged 10-minute video, prominent artists from a wide range of disciplines speak of the loneliness and despair combined with deepening concern that the arts are being overlooked.
(Watch the video here https://youtu.be/hlYorBoUmoc or at https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10157888789001969&id=516426968 )
They tell of having bookings and income in their gig-to-gig industry cut to zero, which in some cases has left them in despair reliant on family and friends to survive.
“I made the video because it was clear to me that the arts community and the people who make it so vital were being overlooked even though entertainment is among one of the most hardest hit sectors,” said Bustar.
“Very few people beyond artists’ immediate circle are aware of the depths of despair into which they’ve been plunged amid the silence of government in terms of offering income protection beyond JobKeeper at a time when the covid crisis continues unabated especially with the current outbreak and lockdown in the wider Sydney region. .
“The video is an impassioned plea from the arts community for a lifeline to get them to the other side of the pandemic. As one of the artists in the video says, the arts community consists of the artists and entertainers who produce the content that is helping everyone else get through the pandemic and its restrictions but are now in need of help themselves.”
In the video, artists contrast how every effort has been made to ensure that the passion of Australians for sport is satisfied but the same priority has not been afforded to the arts.
In it, virtuoso jazz vocalist and violinist Fem Belling says: “Artists are the last to be thought of, we are not (seen as) important, we don’t do important things. But I want to challenge every single person out there to go through a lockdown or some harrowing time in their life without music, without Netflix, without newspapers, without books … (it is) the artists who create those things and yet we are the first to always be asked, ‘please donate your services’. The government needs to step up and look after the people that they go home to every night when they turn on their televisions and radios.”
In the video there is also a note of defiance on the part of the arts community with prominent keynote speaker and corporate entertainer Anthony Laye saying: “Do we just throw in the towel and say ‘stuff it I’m moving out of the entertainment and speaking world’ or do we hang in there to to wait and hope that things might get back to normal? I want to hang in there because I love what I do.”
James Bustar said he hoped the video and the pleas of the arts community would be seen far and wide to raise awareness of how serious the situation had become for many artists in terms of their mental health and ability to support themselves financially and in other ways.
“People see the work of the arts community in their lives every day but they don’t necessarily know what is going on in the background or the pressure that individual artists are under,” Bustar said. “If nothing else, I hope the video shines a light on the crisis they are facing and the solution to help them get through it.”