Arts Council of Greater New Haven
Artists who received grants.
The city and the Arts Council have given out grants to 146 New Haven artists and arts organizations as they struggle to stay afloat during the Covid-19 crisis.
Meanwhile, 559 New Haveners have now tested positive for the novel coronavirus, and 15 city residents have died.
Those updates came Saturday afternoon in Mayor Justin Elicker’s daily virtual press briefing over the videoconferencing app Zoom.
On March 26, the Arts Council of Greater New Haven announced the launch of the New Haven Creative Sector Relief Fund, which allows city artists to apply for grants to help them weather the pandemic that has made much of their work impossible.
Zoom
The Arts Council, in collaboration with the city’s Division of Arts, Culture and Tourism, have now distributed 146 of those grants. City Economic Development Administrator Michael Piscitelli (pictured above) said that 67 artists and businesses are now on a waiting list.
According to the Arts Paper, grants so far have totaled $65,000, and ranged from $250 to $500. New Haven-based artists who qualify for United Way’s Asset Limited Income Constrained Employed (ALICE) designation were eligible to apply, as were arts organizations with annual budgets under $500,000.
Click here to read more about the awards and the recipients.
Other updates included:
• Cornell Scott-Hill Health and Fair Haven Community Health Care have both expanded their telehealth coverage in public housing buildings and low-income apartment complexes throughout the city. Elicker said the two local community health centers have built upon the services they already provide at these locations. Fair Haven, for example, already had a small operation at the Bella Vista senior housing complex, but has now made its telehealth services available to all residents of the complex. On Monday, it will expand its services to a few more Housing Authority of New Haven buildings, said Elicker. Cornell Scott-Hill has also expanded its telehealth coverage in housing authority buildings.
Both health networks have also tested housing authority residents for the novel coronavirus, but they are limited by a shortage of swabs and personal protective equipment (PPE), he said.
• Elicker said he has been “discouraged” to hear that some political leaders have said it might soon be time to reopen businesses to get the economy moving. “While all of us would love to say that now is the right time to open up the economy, the medical experts are saying that that is absolutely the opposite thing that we need to do right now to protect our residents,” he said. He said he is concerned to see “people in leadership roles pushing out a message that things might be getting better already when this is exactly the time when it’s most important for people to stay inside and practice social distancing.” He said that suggesting that social distancing protocols could be lifted very soon is “deeply irresponsible.”
Elicker did not specify to whom he was referring, though he did say that much of this type of messaging has come from Washington, D.C., and some from around the state. On Friday, President Trump suggested that he would decide soon whether to ease restrictions to open up the economy (though most restrictions have been ordered by states and not the federal government). Health officials have warned that doing so would cause the country to relapse into a major outbreak and that the only way to avoid overwhelming hospitals is to maintain the strict social distancing provisions in place.
Some Republicans in the state legislature criticized Gov. Ned Lamont after he extended the state’s school closures to at least May 20. For example, CT Mirror quoted Rep. Vincent Candelora, R‑North Branford, saying that he’s “not saying open up the floodgates today,” but that “the modeling that we’re seeing says the social distancing is working. Why make a decision that makes it appear that it is not working, when the data is actually showing the opposite?”
According to many models, Connecticut will likely see its peak in cases at the end of April. The Institute for Health Metrics, which is run by the University of Washington, estimates that Connecticut cases will peak on April 24 with a shortage of 1,400 intensive care unit beds.
It's like the children's book The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper, but instead of continuing to strive for the finish, the train got halfway up the hill and stopped trying because he thought once he started he could stop before he reached the top. Don't quit folks, we're only halfway there. If we relax now, we will just roll back down the hill and have to start all over again.