State Of The Arts

Can you imagine living without all music and TV for the rest of the year? After the COVID-19 lockdowns, many talented local performers in the performing arts industry are foregoing the basics of food and shelter.

Not the most stable South African sector, to begin with, the performing arts industry has experienced, due to the pandemic, a quiet fallout so devastating that it has left many homeless and hungry.

Meet Noah’s Art, an organization run by a group of professional performers who have refused to stand by and passively watch fellow colleagues struggle.

Headed by Vicky Friedman, a performing artist herself (you may recognise her as the supporting actress in Hairspray or from her role in the ensemble in Hazel Feldman’s Chicago and Pieter Torien’s Stepping Out), Noah’s Art has jumped in, together with The Angel Network, to raise money to in an initiative to feed performing artists.

During the past two months, Noah’s Art has raised around R400 000, working in partnership with The Angel Network, and has fed approximately 900 performing arts professionals and their families.

Vicky says, “Performing artists are really battling and COVID-19 has destroyed livelihoods. A performer relies on crowds and audiences, and on restaurants and theatres being open. These are all places where people need to gather in live spaces.”

Even a minor loss of regular income over an extended period of time can be extremely damaging to the ebb and flow of financial stability. Vicky says that while some live performers have managed to pivot to online forums, there are many who haven’t been able to do so.