Vanessa Redgrave Urges Businesses to Aid Struggling U.K. Arts Sector

The U.K.'s arts and entertainment industries have been among the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Vanessa Redgrave has called on businesses and entrepreneurs to come to the aid of the U.K.'s arts sector, which is facing major financial challenges due to the COVID-19 crisis.

The Oscar winner and BAFTA Fellow was joined by Maxine Peake (Black Mirror, Peterloo), comic and campaigner Lenny Henry and theater director Trevor Nunn at a public appeal to save arts jobs held outside London's National Theatre on Tuesday night.

"We theater and arts people must campaign to raise funds from private enterprise to add to any government funds, so that we can help to restore all the facilities and jobs of all the theaters, music and dance venues, museums, galleries, technical and creatives, teachers and coaches," said Redgrave, according to The Guardian.

In July, the British government unveiled a $2 billion rescue package for the U.K.'s cultural sector, including grants and loans. But Arts Council England, the body distributing the funds, has already warned that not every organization can be saved.

Redgrave read out messages of support from, among others, Lesley Manville and Liam Neeson.

"A true society cannot be whole nor fundamentally exist without the arts and the people employed in the arts," said Neeson. "Culture is society's compass, our North Star. If we lose our compass, we all lose our way. This appeal requires urgent attention. The character of our very existence as a nation is at stake."

The U.K.'s arts and entertainment industries have been among the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic that any other areas of the economy, according to the latest data from the Office of National Statistics, with 23 percent of business reporting severe to moderate threat of insolvency.