A-Z inventions of Covid-19: Collective aid for cultural workers

From virtual support groups to resource sharing to micro-grants, ground-up "networks of care" have sprung up amid the Covid-19 pandemic to help those in need.

One such initiative, known as Collective Aid, supports cultural workers such as independent curators, freelance performers and technicians, particularly those struggling to support their families.

It is a joint initiative by four art spaces and collectives - Grey Projects, Coda Culture, Inter-Mission and soft/WALL/studs.

Since September, it has given out more than 20 emergency micro-grants (ranging from $100 to $500) and also offers free counselling sessions, the use of its spaces and equipment, and other support such as tech consulting.

Grey Projects' founder Jason Wee, 41, tells The Sunday Times that the founders came up with the idea when the National Gallery Singapore invited them to be part of its Proposals For Novel Ways Of Being programme.

They wondered if they could do something independently in their small spaces too.

"It got us thinking that maybe we didn't have to focus so much on making, but caring. Not just a network of circulating art objects, but a network of care," Wee adds.

The four groups ended up pooling resources and funds. So far, more than 50 people have benefited from the initiative.

Grey Projects, whose contribution is partly supported by funding from Proposals For Novel Ways Of Being, also ran a book sale in October to sustain its counselling hours, which it hopes to extend till at least early next year.

The help provided by Collective Aid is not bound to requirements such as having to produce a project after receiving funds.

Other forms of collective care have sprung up too.

For example, Grey Projects also has a pen-pal project where three artists and writers exchange handwritten postcards with pupils from the YWCA Kids' Weekday Care programme, as well as elderly people in the Tanglin and Ghim Moh areas.