Firstdraft Response to COVID-19

The health and safety of our community is our priority, including our artists, audiences, volunteers, staff and board. To help ensure this, the Board of Directors have made the decision to close Firstdraft until 3 May 2020. Firstdraft is actively monitoring the evolving situation around COVID-19, and will continue to follow the advice of NSW Health and other credible health authorities. 

This decision is aligned with organisations within our networks at All Conference and Contemporary Arts Organisations Australia (CAOA). This is a minimum period of closure and may be lengthened based on advice from the NSW Government, peer organisations and the arts community.

Firstdraft is committed to our program and we are working actively with all impacted artists, curators and writers to realise their projects in the near future. Over the coming weeks we will be publishing artist-led content to engage our audiences online, providing digital access to our current exhibitions. Visit our website and follow us on Instagram for updates.

If you’re an artist or arts organisation, we urge you to participate in the National Association for the Visual Arts’ (NAVA) COVID-19 Arts Impacts Survey. This will assist NAVA in advocating to state and federal ministries and government departments to consider urgent policy and funding responses. 

Finally, the Firstdraft Program Callout is open and we have extended the deadline to Sunday 29 March to assist artists, curators, and writers affected by the crisis. As the situation continues to unfold, we will remain communicative with applicants about all programming considerations.

If you have questions or comments regarding any of the above, please contact our Communications and Engagement Manager JD Reforma. We are committed to supporting our community through this challenging time, and look forward to reopening Firstdraft as soon as it is safe to do so.

Yours Sincerely,

The Firstdraft Board of Directors
Julia Mendel, Athena Thebus, Jamey Nguyen, Ohni Blu, Hannah Jenkins, Yuki Kawakami, Georgia Mokak, Thea Perkins, Michael Sun