Cincinnati Art Museum, Purple People Bridge, Others Lighting Up Red for #RedAlertRESTART to Support Live Event Industry

As part of a nationwide call to Congress to support the Restart Act, North America’s #WeMakeEvents coalition has organized the #RedAlertRESTART campaign, asking art and music venues across the nation to turn their lights red to support the artists, musicians and entertainers still out of work as a result of COVID-19.

According to a story in Billboard, “The #RedAlertRESTART campaign seeks to bring awareness to the dire situation live music faces if Capitol Hill does not supply support for venues that have been shuttered since mid-March in order to slow the spread of COVID-19. From 9 p.m. to 12 a.m. PST on Tuesday night, music venues nationwide will be lit red to highlight that the live events industry is on red alert for its survival.”

Locally, venues including the Cincinnati Art Museum, Duke Energy Convention Center, Purple People Bridge, Fountain Square, Heritage Bank Center and more will be illuminating red from 9 p.m. to midnight our time. 

“The entire live events industry is on the brink of collapse. Without financial relief, many businesses stand to permanently close, and families risk bankruptcy and homelessness,” said Brad Nelms, director of WeMakeEvents North America, in a release. “We want to take this opportunity to show the world the scale of what it takes to make live entertainment events happen and demonstrate how much this crisis has affected our community. This is a human issue, not a political issue, and it requires immediate action. While we realize there are a lot of issues going on right now, and other organizations will be staging events on other dates, we feel very strongly we must act now to save our industry.”

The Restart Act (which you can read at congress.gov) will extend the Paycheck Protection Program and “offers up to 90% forgiveness for loans to companies that have high revenue loss and doesn’t penalize industries that rely on part-time employees,” says Billboard.

The live music, theater and events industries have been some of the businesses most impacted by the coronavirus-related shutdowns and restrictions, with Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine only recently issuing preliminary guidelines regarding audience capacity, capping interior venues at “the lesser of 15% of their fixed-seated capacity or 300 people.”

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🔴 Red Alert Restart⁠ ⁠ In support of the Live Events industry, the Cincinnati Art Museum and the Art Climb will be lighting up red to urge Congress to pass the Restart Act to support workers in the arts and entertainment industry who have lost their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic. TONIGHT from 9 p.m. to midnight, we will join the Purple People Bridge, Duke Energy Convention Center, Fountain Square, Heritage Bank Center and many more in our region and across the US in bringing awareness to #RedAlertRestart⁠ ⁠ Visit the link in our story to write to your member of Congress in support!⁠ ⁠ @CincinnatiUSA Convention & Visitors Bureau ⁠ #WeMakeEvents #Cincinnati

A post shared by Cincinnati Art Museum (@cincyartmuseum) on Sep 1, 2020 at 12:30pm PDT

This article appears in The Meaning of Monuments.