We are very pleased that BOP has joined the sector-wide initiative ‘Freelance Task Force’

BOP joins hundreds of other companies across the UK in working to establish a #FreelanceTaskForce – to strengthen the influence of the self-employed theatre and performance community during these uncertain times. The Task Force will create ongoing points of connection between freelancers, organisations, funders and government to amplify the voices of self-employed workers in conversations regarding how the performing arts sector responds to and recovers from the current situation.

We are excited to announce that writer, filmmaker and interdisciplinary artist Sandra Alland will be representing BOP on the #FreelanceTaskForce. San’s work experiments with form, and focuses on feminist, queer and disabled politics/poetics. She was Associate Artist at Anatomy Arts in 2016-17, and performed her live short story with film, “Equivalence”, at Barbican (Transpose), Summerhall and Edinburgh FIlmhouse. Author of three poetry books, San also co-edited the UK anthology Stairs and Whispers: D/deaf & Disabled Poets Write Back. In April 2020, she was Guest Editor for Disability Arts Online producing a showcase of text and audio by LGBTQIA+ artists.

As part of establishing this Freelance Task Force, BOP has signed an Open Letter to Theatre and Performance Makers. The letter has 3 main aims:

• To listen and respond to the needs of freelancers in the performing arts
• To call for the Self Employment Income Support Scheme to be extended in line with furloughing
• To establish a Task Force of self-employed theatre and performance makers

You can access the full letter below as: a Word document; a large print Word document; a BSL video; an Easy Read PDF

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As signatories of this letter, BOP commits to engaging a freelancer for one day a week throughout June, July and August – thirteen weeks in total. BOP joined the #FreelanceTaskForce only in the last few days and because of this limited timescale we made the decision to approach an individual directly.

A note on the fee:

During the establishment of the Freelance Task Force there have been questions around the varied payscales offered by organisations to the individuals they are hiring, ranging from £100 – £200 per day.

BOP is a small organisation with limited resources and while we are extremely happy to contribute to an initiative as important and valuable as the Freelance Task Force, we have to balance this expenditure with the many other projects and initiatives we have established / are developing to support disabled artists across Scotland during this extremely difficult time.

Taking all of the above factors into considerations, we decided upon a fee of £130 per day.

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Within the Freelance Task Force framework, Graeae and Birds of Paradise have made a conscious decision to partner up, joining up the dots between Scotland and England, for better sharing of knowledge on UK wide matters.

We do this in the knowledge that D/deaf and disabled people face increased barriers (physical, attitudinal, financial) compared to other people and we want to make sure that their voices are represented on mass and that nobody falls through the gaps.

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