Red Lights at Night! Tonight, Tuesday September 1, venues in the Dallas Arts District will light up in red lights, drawing attention to the effects of COVID-19 on local and national arts communities, including the live entertainment community, most of which is still closed due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Mounting losses at Texas Art organizations, including $67.7 million in financial losses and still-mounting mass jobs losses, have occurred since the beginning of the Great Lockdown of 2020.
Red Alert, the nationwide initiative that borrows from similar efforts in England, will take place tonight through midnight in the hope that the US Congress will act on COVID-19 relief packages such as the RESTART Act, and the Senator John Cornyn- (R-TX) and Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)-sponsored Save Our Stages Act. These bills could support live performance venues until they are able to safely and fully reopen.
With the hashtag #RedAlertRESTART, Red Alert organizers seek to continue and expand the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program (PUA) with the help of the public.
Participants include the following:
Dallas Arts District; AT&T Performing Arts Center; Winspear Opera House; Wyly Theatre; Strauss Square; Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts; Dallas Black Dance Theatre; Dallas Museum of Art; HALL Arts Hotel; Klyde Warren Park; KPMG at HALL Arts; Meyerson Symphony Center; Moody Performance Hall; Nasher Sculpture Center; One Arts Plaza; 1900 Pearl and other venues outside the Dallas Arts District including American Airlines Center and others.
For more on the program, please go here.
****
Red Alert is designed to raise public awareness that the live entertainment and events industry is fighting for its very survival, and that Congress should act now. Click HERE to read more. Organizers are urging the public to contact their members of Congress, and to post pictures and messages of support on social media with hashtags #RedAlertRESTART, #WeMakeEvents, #SaveOurStages, and #ExtendPUA.