Kindness in giving? Giving to and through the arts in the time of COVID-19

Abstract

This article uses kindness as a lens through which to analyse examples of giving to and through the arts in Aotearoa during the first year of COVID-19. We consider whether the exceptional conditions created by COVID-19 caused reconsideration of the way the arts look after society and why and how societies need to look after the arts. We do so by critically examining state and private giving to the arts in Aotearoa New Zealand, from March 2020-March 2021, alongside large-and small-scale artistic gestures of giving. It appears that a ‘kinder’ economy for the arts emerged during this time. While this did not disrupt the established asymmetries in the arts or society, there was a glimpse of how the neoliberal ethos for giving to the arts might be decentred by an ethos of ‘social flesh’ (Beasley & Bacchi, 2012).